Quarantine restrictions for arrivals from Portugal lifted

Tourists from Portugal will no longer have to quarantine on arrival to the UK, the Department for Transport has confirmed.

However, those arriving from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago will now have to self-isolate for 14 days.

The Foreign Office (FCO) also updated its travel advice to warn against travel to Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago shortly after transport secretary Grant Shapps made the announcement via Twitter.

Changes will come into effect at 4am on Saturday morning (22 August).

Shapps said “a range of factors” are taken into account when assessing travel corridors, “including but not limited to: estimated prevalence of Covid-19 in a country; the level and rate of change in the incidence of confirmed positive cases; the extent of testing in a country”.

He added: “The testing regime and test positivity; the extent to which cases can be accounted for by a contained outbreak as opposed to more general transmission in the community; government actions; and other relevant epidemiological information.”

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