Moving India to the “amber” category from the “red” zone, the United Kingdom has now eased the mandatory quarantine restrictions to an extent for travelers from India.
As per its latest set of rules, fully vaccinated Indians do not need to quarantine themselves in a hotel anymore. Travelers will have the choice of completing the 10-day compulsory quarantine at home or any preferred place. This comes under Britain’s policies for people flying to the UK from an “amber” listed nation.
Moreover, Indians will also have the option of “Test to Release” following 5 days of their quarantine.
However, a covid-19 negative test will be mandatory for everyone. One test should be taken within 3 days before their departure while two more must be booked prior to their arrival in the UK. These two will be taken when they land in England along with the need to complete a passenger locator form.
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The mandatory 10-day quarantine can be spent at home or any location travelers have confirmed and take a test on or before day 2 and another on or after day 8 of their stay.
As for the “Test for Release” option, it is a paid service, which can be availed by Indians through a private covid-19 test service provider on day 5. The person will be allowed to end their quarantine if the day two test and day 5 test come negative. However, the scheme cannot be utilized if the person hasn’t completed at least 5 days in England.
Under 18 and fully vaccinated individuals do not need to abide by the home quarantine rules. These also do not apply to those administered with 2 doses of covid vaccine in Europe and the US.
People “fully vaccinated in the UK or under the UK vaccine programme overseas; under 18 on the day you arrive in England and resident in the UK or in a country with a vaccination programme approved by the UK and part of a UK-approved vaccine trial,” will not require to be quarantined, as per the rules.
The change of rules will come into effect from Sunday at 4 am (local time of the UK) and will act as a relief for many Indian students and families waiting to travel to the UK.
Apart from India, a couple of other countries have also gained the status shift from red to amber. UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted, “The UAE, Qatar, India, and Bahrain will be moved from the red list to the amber list. All changes come into effect Sun 8th August at 4 am.”
Though there is no confirmed news on Covishield’s acceptance, it is likely to remain an exempted vaccine for Indians to travel to the UK as part of this scheme.
