Kenya among Favourite holiday countries that UK could move from red list to amber

An update on the UK’s traffic light travel restrictions is expected to be announced by the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps

New travel restrictions are announced every three weeks, with the last taking place on Thursday, 26 August.

Unlike the usual Government press conferences on Covid restrictions, changes to travel restrictions are tweeted by Grant Shapps.

However, a new travel system will be introduced next week when Prime Minister, Boris Johnson updates the country on the UK’s Covid winter plan.

The current traffic light system, which splits countries into green, amber and red based on various Covid factors in that country, is expected to be replaced by a simpler two-tier system that divides countries into ‘yes, safe to travel’ or ‘no, don’t travel’.

There are currently 62 countries on the red list, 43 on the green list and the remaining on the amber list.

All arrivals from red-list countries must spend 10 days in a quarantine hotel, which cost £2,285 per room.

It’s also compulsory for travellers to take a pre-departure test and PCR test on or before day two and on or after day eight.

Covid data analyst, Tim White told The Independent that he believes 12 countries should be removed from the red list.

They are: Argentina, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Kenya, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

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However, Paul Charles, a travel consultant for the PC Agency thinks the following 24 countries should be removed from the red list: Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Rwanda, South Africa and Uruguay.

There are hopes that the popular holiday destination Turkey will come off the red list and onto amber.

Meanwhile the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab would like to see Pakistan taken off the red list.

Dominic Raab visited Pakistan earlier this month to discuss how the UK and Pakistan could work together to “safely and responsibly” remove it from the red list.