How the UK covid travel map will look from Monday

Thursday 22 April 2021

The Government has revealed the covid traffic light rankings for the UK ahead of borders reopening on Monday.

According to the map, the majority of England and Scotland will be green, while Northern Ireland is predominantly amber.

Guernsey is green, while the Isle of Man is red.

Previously, all new arrivals had been treated as coming from a 'red' region, meaning at least 10 days' quarantine and at least three covid tests.

The map was released this afternoon, and the Government's website updated (CLICK HERE to search by country/region), after States Members rejected a bid to tighten up travel restrictions. 

CLICK TO ENLARGE: UK regional classifications from Monday 26 April. 

Green jurisdictions are classified by Government as those with 50 covid cases or fewer per 100,000 population over a 14-day period.

But a group of States Members tasked with scrutinising the island’s pandemic border policy felt this should be stricter, calling for it to be reduced to 25 cases per 100,000.

They said this was partially based on concerns from STAC last year that Ministers' setting the definition of a green zone at 50 cases, up from the original level of 25, had led to a spike in covid locally.

Had their plans succeeded, more than 150 UK regions would have turned from green to amber, meaning travellers from such areas would have to quarantine for a minimum of five days and receive two negative tests.

But the idea was thrown out by the States Assembly this afternoon, with just nine votes in favour.

They also rejected, by 31 votes to 12, a plan to rank UK regions by the larger upper tier local authority (counties, metropolitan districts, inner and outer London and unitary authorities) rather than the lower tier or council areas, as was the case last year. 

However, the Assembly did agree that States Members should be briefed ahead of any future changes to the Safer Travel Policy.