The updated UK 'green list' ends quarantine-free travel to Portugal

The UK has updated its traffic light system by adding seven countries to its red list and removing Portugal from its quarantine-free travel list.

International travel resumed in May for England under a traffic light system, which sees countries and territories divided into three categories based on their COVID-19 risk; green, amber or red. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have similar rules in place.

The system is reviewed every three weeks, with the categories dictating whether holidaymakers will need to quarantine when they return home, or if the destinations should not be visited except in urgent circumstances. On Thursday it was announced that Portugal has been removed from the quarantine-free green list and is now on the mid-risk amber list. Anyone coming from an amber destination must quarantine at home for 10 days and take two PCR tests. This can be reduced if a test after five days proves negative.

Some popular destinations for British travelers—like the US, France, Italy, Greece and Spain—remain on amber. No new countries have been given green status in the latest review.

Gibraltar remains on the UK's green list © Jayson Oertel/500px

The UK's transport secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News the decision to downgrade Portugal's travel status comes as the country's positivity rate of COVID-19 has nearly "doubled since the last review". Shapps also expressed fears around the mutation of the B.1.617.2, a more transmissible COVID-19 variant first detected in India, that's now spreading throughout the UK. According to Public Health England, this strain accounts for 75% of new cases.

"We just don't know if that has the potential to be a vaccine-defeating mutation," Shapps said on Thursday, adding that the government doesn't want to take any risks before ending lockdown on June 21.

Portugal is no longer on the green list for UK travelers © Sean Pavone/Shutterstock

The green list now includes just Israel; Australia; New Zealand; Singapore; Gibraltar; Brunei; Faroe Islands; Falkland Islands; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha – destinations where infection rates are low and vaccination rates are high.

Some of the green list countries also have their own restrictions in place that will prevent British travelers from visiting, including Australia and New Zealand. While travelers don't need to quarantine upon arrival when they return to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from green list countries, they need to take COVID-19 tests before they leave, as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on or before day two of their arrival back.

Arrivals from Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Sudan will be required to undergo mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense as those countries were relegated from amber to red, extending the high-risk list from 43 to 50 countries. The new rules come into effect on Tuesday, June 8 at 4am.