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Portugal’s internal administration minister, Eduardo Cabrita, said on Monday that Portugal’s removal from the British ‘red list’ was extremely positive, as it was a recognition of what Portugal has done in recent weeks.
It is extremely positive because there was no basis for including Portugal on this list, Cabrita said.
Cabrita spoke with Portuguese correspondents in Brussels after chairing the ‘Jumbo’ Council, a meeting that brought together the Ministers of Internal and Foreign Affairs of the European Union (EU) and that was dedicated to the external dimension of the migratory phenomenon.
Noting that Portugal now has particularly low incidence indicators regarding the pandemic situation, Cabrita emphasized that the country needs to continue consolidating these results and remain attentive to the risk of the variant detected in the United Kingdom and its impact in Europe.
On Monday, the British Transport Ministry announced that the UK would allow direct flights and remove Portugal from Friday’s “red list” of countries whose travelers are in hotel quarantine in the UK.
The announcement said that air links would also resume.
The decision was made following evidence that the risk of importing a variant of concern from these destinations has been reduced, it said in a statement, noting that Portugal has adopted measures to mitigate the risk of its ties with countries where the variants are have become a concern. and now it has genomic surveillance.
However, air links are not expected to resume immediately as the Portuguese government has extended the suspension of flights, commercial or private, to or from the UK and Brazil until March 31.
Portugal was the only European country on a list of African and South American countries whose travel to the UK was prohibited to reduce the risk of importing variants of the new coronavirus that are more infectious and resistant to the vaccines discovered in Brazil and South Africa.
Travelers from the 33 countries on the so-called “red list”, including Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique, must serve a 10-day quarantine in a hotel designated by the authorities and pay the cost of 1,750 pounds (2,030 euros).
