By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The UK government has made it much easier for Ugandans to travel abroad after scrapping off travel restrictions against Uganda and other 47 countries whose COVID-19 cases had escalated in past months.
As of 11th October, arrivals from 47 countries will no longer have to enter hotel quarantine. They will just have to do a PCR test on or before day 2.
In a major overhaul, only seven countries remain on the red quarantine list, including Peru and the Dominican Republic.
Announcing the update on Twitter this afternoon, UK transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed that the 47 recategorised countries will be moved to Britain’s “rest of the world” list.
The UK’s simplified rules for travel came into force on October 4th, with the traffic light system scrapped in favour of a single red list.
Mr Shapps added: “I’m also making changes so travellers visiting England have fewer entry requirements, by recognising those with fully-vax status from 37 new countries and territories including India, Turkey and Ghana, treating them the same as UK fully vax passengers.”
Which countries have been removed from the UK’s red list?
As of Monday 11th October, people travelling to England from these locations will no longer have to quarantine in a hotel on arrival:
- Afghanistan
- Angola
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Burundi
- Cape Verde
- Chile
- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- French Guiana
- Georgia
- Guyana
- Indonesia
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mayotte
- Mexico
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nepal
- Paraguay
- Philippines
- Réunion
- Rwanda
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Uruguay
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Travel restrictions are updated every three weeks by the UK government, meaning the next update is expected on or around Thursday 28 October.
The UK government is also easing its vaccination requirements for a further 37 countries and territories, including Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey.
This means that vaccinated passengers travelling from these non-red list places will only need to take a day two test upon arrival in England – just like returning, fully-vaccinated UK residents.
Those without authorised vaccines arriving from a ‘rest of world’ destination must still take a pre-departure test, a day 2 and day 8 test, and complete 10 days of self-isolation.
