Breaking: Cyprus and Lithuania removed from quarantine-free travel list
Quarantine-free travel to Cyprus and Lithuania will end on Sunday after both countries’ travel corridors were removed today following a spike in coronavirus infections across the regions.
Both countries will have their quarantine-free travel corridors removed from 4am this Sunday.
From that time arrivals in the UK will have to self-isolate for 14 days, transport secretary Grant Shapps said today.
The move comes after Cyprus and Lithuania’s seven-day infection rates crossed the threshold of 100 per 100,000 residents used by the government to impose travel restrictions.
Cyprus has only recorded 25 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic, and 3,187 confirmed cases, according to the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC).
However, its rate of infection currently stands at 192.6 cases per 100,000, following a sharp spike in new infections.
Lithuania has reported 144 coronavirus-related deaths since March, and 12,138 confirmed cases. Its cumulative rate of infection currently stands at 201 per 100,000.
“There has been a consistent increase in Covid-19 cases per 100,000 of the population in Cyprus over the last 2 weeks, with a 79 per cent increase in total cases over this time period,” the Department for Transport said in a statement.
“In Lithuania, new cases per week have increased by 47 per cent over the same time period.”
Penalties for breaching the 14-day quarantine rules have increased from £1,000 for first offences up to £10,000 for subsequent offences, mirroring penalties for those breaching self-isolation rules set out by the Test and Trace scheme.
Germany and Sweden, which were both expected to be added to the quarantine list after hurtling past the 100 infections per 100,000 barrier, were spared from new restrictions.
No new travel corridors were added to the list fo safe zones, despite Egypt, Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic dipping back into the green zone in terms of infection rates.
It means there are just a handful of quarantine-free countries left on the list for the winter holidays.
Brits can still travel to and from countries in the Caribbean without having to quarantine on their return home, including St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados.
European countries including Germany, Sweden, Greece, Finland and Norway are also still on the green list.
It comes after researchers at Harvard University earlier this week found that the risks of catching coronavirus during a flight were the same as in undertaking more routine activities like food shopping.
The report found the risk level for catching Covid-19 during flights can be “reduced to very low levels through the combination of layered infection control measures.”