- The United Kingdom government places the United States on its new “red list” of countries deemed unsafe to travel due to the coronavirus.
- The UK announced on Friday that arrivals in England from dozens of countries will no longer have to be quarantined for 14 days from July 10.
- France, Spain, Italy and Germany are on the list, as well as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey.
- However, the United States is on the UK “red list”, confirmed the UK Secretary of Transport Grant Shapps.
- The daily number of new cases in the United States hit a record this week.
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The UK government has put the United States on a “red list” of countries that will not be included in relaxed rules for international travel to be presented next week.
Starting Friday, July 10, arrivals of dozens of countries in England will no longer have to be quarantined for 14 days, in the latest stage of the prime minister’s plan to ease blockade measures in Britain. The new rules do not apply to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Boris Johnson government released the list of approved countries today (Friday, July 3).
It includes the European neighbors of the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, as well as other countries where the United Kingdom government has considered it safe for the British to visit such as New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Turkey.
The UK government has divided the approved list of countries into “green” and “amber” based on the level of risk associated with COVID-19, according to multiple reports.
However, the United States has been placed on a “red list” of countries deemed too unsafe for people to visit, confirmed UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Friday morning.
“I’m afraid it will be,” Shapps told the BBC when asked if the United States would be on the red list.
“The United States from a very early stage banned flights from the United Kingdom and Europe, so there is no reciprocal agreement.”
While most European countries have suppressed the coronavirus thanks to tight national blockades that last for several weeks, the virus continues to spread in the US after the Trump administration began reopening the economy in early May.
The United States recorded its highest number of daily new cases on Wednesday: 50,600.
Meanwhile, several states that began reopening their economies several weeks ago, such as California, Florida, and Arizona, have again imposed closure measures in response to a sharp increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases.
