Saudi Gazette report

LONDON — The United Kingdom has added Turkey to its travel “red list” over fears of new coronavirus variants, the UK government said in a press release on Friday.

According to the updated list, which will come into force on May 12 (Wednesday) at 4 a.m. local time, travelers coming from Tureky as well as Maldives and Nepal will not be allowed to enter the UK.

Meanwhile, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Friday that international travel can begin to safely reopen from May 17, allowing people to go on foreign holidays to “green list” countries.

Our priority remains to protect public health, which is why the “green” list is currently very small, with only 12 countries and territories. As the epidemiological situation improves worldwide, it is expected that there will be more opportunities for leisure travel with a greater number of destinations added.

In total, 12 countries and territories have been added to the green list. Some of these include Portugal including the Azores and Madeira; Australia; New Zealand; Singapore; Brunei; Iceland; Faroe Islands; Gibraltar; Falkland Islands; and Israel and Jerusalem.

The lists will be reviewed every 3 weeks, informed by public health advice, including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s assessment of the latest data. These regular review points will allow the government to balance helping the public to understand COVID requirements when travelling to England while allowing us to constantly evaluate the risk for different countries, the government said in its press release.

According to the press release, the UK government will also be publishing a green watchlist in the future, to provide an indication when a country is identified as a candidate for a changing country. All measures will be kept under review and further action may be taken to protect public health.