Green List the Balearics! UK Under Pressure To Ease Restrictions

Green List the Balearics! The British government is under pressure to expand the number of destinations on the green list and to clear the way for travel to the Balearics and other Iberian holiday hotspots.

Transport Minister Grant Shapps will lead a review of the UK’s green, amber and red lists in Whitehall this afternoon. The changes, if any, will come into effect from Tuesday June 29. The next update is scheduled for July 19, and again on August 9.

The UK has 11 countries on its green list, after Portugal was demoted to amber earlier this month to the disappointment of holidaymakers and the travel industry alike.

While incidents of Delta variant infections in Portugal have surged, hopes are high that Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, Malta and some Caribbean islands could be green listed today.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has mooted plans to allow holidaymakers with both jabs to travel without facing quarantine upon return to the UK, but scientists must sign off on the plan before the government can go ahead with easing restrictions.

More than three in five Brits have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine and more than 82.5 per cent have received at least one dose, the government said on June 23.

Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi said, “Two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are absolutely vital in ensuring the fullest possible protection the jabs have to offer – it’s extraordinary that three in five people have now been vaccinated with both jabs.”

If the UK does not open up international travel further, it will cost a staggering £639 million a day, The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) warned on June 22.

The global tourism body said 218,000 jobs are at risk on top of the 307,000 already lost.

Virginia Messina, Senior Vice President of the WTTC, added, “Stalling the resumption of international travel could cost the country dearly. We simply can’t afford any further delay – we are running out of time and money, with many more businesses in danger of going bust, which would result in more job losses.”

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