France and Italy ‘could join UK’s green list within weeks’

A TRAVEL expert has claimed that popular European destinations France and Italy could be on the UK’s green list in weeks.

According to the expert, a total of 22 further countries could be added to the UK’s green travel list in July.

Robert Boyle, former British Airways strategy chief, says he had used the calculations used by government scientists to rank countries for quarantine-free travel and found that popular destinations including France and Italy could be set to go green.

He told the Telegraph that 22 countries met the requirements of fewer than 20 cases per 100,000 people as well as high vaccinations rates to be included on the list.

Boyle says the full list of countries includes France, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Norway, Vietnam, Denmark, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Taiwan and Azerbaijan.

As well as announcing its updated green travel list later this month, the UK government is also set to reveal whether fully vaccinated travellers will be able to visit amber list countries without quarantining.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We’ll be setting out a lot more about the details of that in the course of July, in the course of the next few days, about how we see it working.

“But I want to repeat a point that I’ve made before and I hope people will forgive me if I say this. Obviously I want travel to be possible, but I’ve got to stress that this year will not be like every other year because of the difficulties with Covid.”

The news comes after Spain has brought in further requirements for British travellers following a rise in cases in the UK, with tourists now required to show a test or that they have received their vaccines.

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