The best news in 18 months of the Corona Lockdown broke today, with the UK announcing that it will remove South Africa and 46 other countries from its Red List as of Monday 11 October. Only seven countries will remain on the UK Red List on Monday: Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Vaccinated Visitors may enter the UK on the same conditions as those of UK residents, but may not have travelled in a Red List country in the ten days before arriving in the UK. South Africa has been on the Red List since December 2020.
A further positive step is that South Africans’ proof of vaccination will be accepted by the UK. South African travellers will have to show the results of a Covid Test. No hotel quarantine will be required from Monday onwards, a costly affair for travellers to the UK, having to stay in prescribed quarantine hotels at a cost of close to R50000.
Business Insider reports that being on the UK’s Red List has cost our country R790 mullion per month of being on the List, given that the UK is the largest Tourism Source market for our country.
Our country’s digital vaccine certificates issued by the Department of Health are expected to go live tomorrow.
Countries which will be removed from the UK’s Red List alongside South Africa on Monday are Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Namibia, Paraguay, Philippines, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide