UK to remove quarantine requirement for UAE travellers next month

The UK is finalising arrangements to remove the quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated people from the UAE, a senior UK official has said.

“We are finalising arrangements with UAE to include their nationals and residents in our plans to open up to the fully vaccinated from other countries from October 4,” James Cleverly, Minister for Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Twitter on Saturday.

“Delighted that international travel is opening up,” he added.

Delighted that international travel is opening up.

We are finalising arrangements with UAE to include their nationals and residents in our plans to open up to the fully vaccinated from other countries from 4 October https://t.co/XEQtNxsE6r

— James Cleverly?? (@JamesCleverly) September 17, 2021

The UAE was shifted from the red list onto the UK’s amber list for travel from August 8 following its inclusion in the red list in January.

Hence travellers arriving in the UK from the UAE no longer need to quarantine in a government-approved hotel, provided they are fully vaccinated. However, they do have to quarantine at home for at least five days.

Read: UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and India removed from UK’s travel red list

On Saturday, the UK announced new measures to further ease travel into the country. From October 4, the requirement for pre-departure Covid-19 PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers arriving from non-red list countries will be scrapped.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps also announced that the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries will be discontinued from October 4 and replaced with a single red list to simplify travel procedures.

We’ll also be introducing a new simplified system for international travel from Mon 4 Oct ?, replacing the current approach with a single red list ? and simplified measures for the rest of the world – striking the right balance to manage the public health risk as No.1 priority.

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) September 17, 2021

He also confirmed that eight countries and territories will come off the red list from September 22, including Oman, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Kenya and Sri Lanka.