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Vaccinated Brits could soon be allowed to travel abroad without needing to quarantine on their return.
The government reportedly hopes to introduce quarantine-free travel from “amber list” countries for those who have had both Covid-19 jabs by July 26 – the first week of the school holidays.
That would mean the whole of Europe would be gradually opened up for fully-vaccinated UK travellers, the Times reports.
The plans are thought to initially apply to UK residents only, but a deal to extend it to EU citizens is reportedly close to being agreed.
“The big focus for us is Europe now,” a government source told the Times. “All European ambassadors have been told to go lobby.”
(Image: Getty Images)
It remains unclear how vaccine certificate verification will be rolled out.
Vision Box, which operates UK e-passport gates, said the technology to scan UK and EU certificates is now available.
“We are confident that using the Vision Box platform checks can be easily enabled on the e-gates to deal with any future threat or pandemic to the country,” Mitul Ruparelia, vice-president of Vision Box, told the Times.
A deal to allow UK residents to prove they have both jabs by using the NHS app while travelling in Europe is also said to be imminent.
(Image: PA)
It would also enable Brits to show PCR test results, which could open the door quarantine-free travel to countries such as Spain, which has so far resisted German chancellor Angela Murkle’s calls to quarantine all UK arrivals across the entire block.
Germany bans most arrivals from the UK, with those who do travel forced to quarantine for 14 days with no exemptions.
Meanwhile, the likelihood of trips to the UK being reopened remain slim.
(Image: Ben Queenborough/PinPep)
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps blamed the delay on the US not having a digital Covid screening system or recognising the same vaccines as used in the UK.
The US doesn’t recognize the AstraZeneca jab, he said, because the firm hasn’t applied for a licence.
“On the other side we don’t have any particular system to recognise vaccine status from the United States because they don’t have a digitised system. They have 50 separate systems.”
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