The British executive is to unveil within two weeks its plans to allow people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 abroad to come to the UK without quarantine, like British residents.
The British government said on Friday that it hoped to unveil “within the next two weeks” its plans to allow people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus abroad to come to the UK without quarantine, like British residents.
The executive had announced on Thursday that only British residents who have received two doses of vaccine as part of the immunization campaign in the UK would be exempt, from July 19, from quarantine on their return to England from many countries placed on the “orange” list, including tourist destinations such as France, Spain or Italy.
The announcement had raised questions about a possible relaxation for British expatriates or people living abroad and vaccinated in other countries. “This is something we are working on very actively,” said Transport Minister Grant Shapps on Sky News.
Towards recognition of foreign certificates
“In terms of timing, I think I will be able to say more in the next couple of weeks,” he added.
It is about being able to “recognize applications or certifications from other countries”, which will be “easier for some places like the EU”, which has a digital passport like the United Kingdom, than for the United States, where the certificate systems vary greatly depending on the state, mainly in paper format, he stressed.
One challenge, he said, is also that the level of fully vaccinated people in other countries is generally lower than in the UK. Nearly 65% of adults have received two doses, and 86.6% a first dose in the country, which is facing a new wave of infections due to the Delta variant.
A thousand Italian supporters allowed
Grant Shapps also defended the decision to allow a thousand Italian fans to attend the Euro final between their country and England on Sunday at Wembley stadium in London without prior quarantine.
“They go directly to see the soccer, they leave 12 hours later, they can not travel anywhere else,” he explained.
Many English fans had to give up attending England’s quarter-final against Ukraine in Rome in early July because the Italian authorities did not require them to undergo a strict five-day quarantine on arrival.
