Canary Islands: Expert on why islands should be on green list
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Under the current traffic light system, Britons are only permitted to travel to a dwindling list of “green” destinations without the need for quarantine upon their return. However, travel expert Simon Calder has pointed to some research that suggests the entire amber list could “happily” be made green at the next traffic light update.
This is anticipated to be on or around June 24, in line with Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps’ comments that the list will be reviewed “every three weeks”.
At the last review, though experts had predicted countries such as Malta and Spain’s archipelagos could be added, the list actually ended up being cut.
Portugal became the first nation to lose its place, causing chaos for holidaymakers currently in the country at the time.
Despite this, Mr Calder says research and current COVID-19 data points to more countries being added should the review go ahead as planned.
Speaking on his Travel Radio show alongside Paul Charles, Mr Calder pointed to an analysis conducted by Robert Boyle who is the former chair of British Airways’ parent company IAG.
Mr Calder explained: “He actually looked at all of the data over a three-week spell, and certainly coming in from red list countries – certainly India and to some extent the UAE, there are high rates of coronavirus being discovered.
“But from amber and green list countries, there are almost none.
“So therefore you could happily move the entire amber list to green and abolish PCR tests and there would not be a significant amount.”
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In the research, which Mr Boyle shared on his Twitter page, the consultant shared a graph showing the number of coronavirus cases recorded by inbound passengers from red, amber and green list countries.
Since March 17, coronavirus cases from inbound passengers have gradually been going down.
Mr Boyle wrote: “Following up on yesterday’s post on England’s arrival testing, I looked at how many people were testing positive on arrival over time (chart shows 5x 3-week periods).
“Cases down 86 percent, mainly due to lower arrivals, down 77 percent.
“But positivity has halved too, from 1.8 percent to 0.9 percent.”
Whether or not this will be enough for the Government to boost the green list remains unknown.
Mr Charles has predicted both Malta and Finland are in good stead to make then quarantine-free travel list.
“According to my latest analysis obviously Malta should still be on there as we have been saying for some time,” he explained.
“The likes of Finland should be on there. There are many other countries within Europe now which are in the green zone.”
Mr Calder, meanwhile, looked to the easing of travel restrictions around the world in order to guess which countries might be listed as green by the end of the month.
“It all depends who wins the battle in Downing Street when these things are decided,” the travel expert said.
“It is increasingly preposterous.”
He continued: “If you look at the US centre for ideas and control, who are behaving sensibly, their Level One which means we cannot identify any threat at all.
“It includes Malta, Iceland, Albania and Morocco, Gambia and Zimbabwe. And ludicrously Zimbabwe is on the UK red list.
“There is also in Level Two, so very little threat, Finland, Moldova, Lichtenstein, and the UK is effectively saying we know something about these places that the Americans and the rest of the world do not.”
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