BBC News 28 July 2021 - by Francesca Gillett
People who are fully vaccinated from the EU amber areas and US will be able to avoid quarantine when arriving in England, the BBC has been told.
Currently, people who have been fully vaccinated in the UK do not need to isolate when travelling from countries on the amber list, except from France. But that exemption did not apply to people vaccinated outside the UK.
The government's Covid Operations committee met earlier and made the decision.
Earlier, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said talks on travel were taking place between the four nations.
The travel industry had been pushing for the change in the rules so that people living abroad can more easily come to the UK for holidays or to visit loved ones.
"At the moment we're in this slightly ridiculous situation where if I'm on a plane from Spain, because I'm lucky enough to have had two jabs, once we get to the UK I just wander off, no problem," said travel expert Simon Calder.
"But the person sitting next to me, who happens to have had their vaccinations in Spain, not in the UK, has to go and sit in a room for 10 days. Doesn't make sense."
However, although they will be able to avoid quarantine in England, US citizens are urged not to travel to the UK by their country's health protection agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And the US border is currently closed to the UK, as well as many other countries, except for US citizens.
The UK and US have set up a taskforce to discuss a travel corridor, although earlier this week the White House said it had no plans to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions for non-Americans.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson told LBC on Wednesday that "we're talking to them the whole time".
Earlier, Labour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said a decision on opening up to fully vaccinated EU and US travellers should only be made when the scientific advice says it is safe.
"We need to learn to live with Covid," he said - but that "we don't know what new variants brought in could "undermine our vaccination process".
Labour is calling for an "international vaccine passport" where agreement is reached with countries like America, Canada and the EU, he said.
The aviation industry including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Heathrow Airport has been calling for a change after carrying out a 10-day trial of checking the vaccination status of passengers.
The companies said 99% of documents were verified correctly during the trial, which involved about 250 fully-vaccinated participants from the US, the Caribbean and Europe, travelling to Heathrow.
