People from the UK travelling to Portugal will have to quarantine for 14 days unless they can present proof they had been fully vaccinated a fortnight before their arrival.
The Portuguese government added the UK to the list of countries from which travellers must quarantine “at home or a place indicated by the health authorities”.
The rules came into effect at midnight.
And Hong Kong has banned all passenger flights from the UK from 1 July.
The Hong Kong government said the UK had been added to its “extremely high-risk” group.
A government statement said cases imported from the UK “involving variant virus strains” had been “persistently” detected in the past few days.
Spanish Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has also announced UK travellers will either need to prove they are fully vaccinated, or provide a negative PCR test on arrival in the country.
The change, which will come into effect later this week, comes after Spain announced in May it was lifting all restrictions for British visitors, who represent the country’s biggest single foreign tourism market.ADVERTISEMENT
Portugal and Spain are currently on the UK’s amber list meaning arrivals back to the UK must take two tests and quarantine for 10 days.
The Balearic Islands are on the UK’s green list, meaning holidaymakers do not have to quarantine on their return.
The Portuguese government’s new quarantine measures only apply to those travelling to mainland Portugal and not Madeira.
There are 19 flights listed as departing on Monday from UK airports to Portugal’s mainland airports Lisbon, Faro and Porto.
The current travel list
The destinations added to the green list from 04:00 BST on 30 June are:
Europe: The Balearic Islands (which include Ibiza, Menorca, Majorca and Formentera), Malta and Madeira
Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands
Other British Overseas Territories: Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory and Pitcairn
Six destinations will also be added to the government’s red list on 30 June – the Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Haiti, Mongolia, Tunisia and Uganda
Germany also wants the European Union to restrict UK travellers.
The Times reported German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to designate the UK as a “country of concern” because the Delta variant of the coronavirus is so widespread.
The plans will be discussed by senior European and national officials on the EU’s integrated political crisis response committee.
Mrs Merkel previously told Germany’s parliament: “In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine – and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see.”
She is set to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Chequers on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also talked about his concern at the spread of the variant.
Last week, Mr Macron said: “We should all be vigilant because the Delta variant is coming.
“We see that it affects people who have not yet been vaccinated or who have only had one dose, which means we have to be even faster in this vaccination campaign.”
Currently, fully-vaccinated UK visitors to France can enter without quarantining.
In Portugal, the legislation is in force until 11 July, but the Portuguese authorities stated it could be reviewed “at any time, depending on the evolution of the epidemiological situation”.
Brazil, South Africa, India and Nepal were already on Portugal’s quarantine list, but the exception for people who are vaccinated against Covid-19 to avoid isolating only applies to the UK.
For all countries on the list, an exception is also made for participants in specified sporting competitions being held in June and July.
Source: BBC
