UK prepares traffic light system for British tourists: What list is Turkey on?
While Turkey plans to welcome British tourists this summer “without any vaccine or test conditions,” it is reported that the British government is preparing to introduce a regulation for the countries where its citizens will travel based on a traffic light system it has developed.
Under this new system, the British Government will divide countries into three categories; green, orange and red, depending on Covid risk factors and the categories will be formed according to the following criteria:
– Percentage of the country’s population vaccinated
– Infection rate
– Prevalence of alarming variants
– Access to reliable scientific data in the country
SPECIAL RULES
According to British media, the applicable rules for categories will be as follows:
Green list: citizens returning home will have a PCR test on or before the second day of their return as well as a pre-departure test, but they will not be required to quarantine or have any additional tests on their return (as long as their results are positive).
Orange list: citizens returning home will be required to remain under quarantine for a 10-day period and undergo a pre-departure test, as well as a PCR test on the second and eighth days. They will also have the option of an additional test on day five so they can finish the isolation early.
Red List: citizens returning home from these countries will have to stay in a quarantine hotel for 10 days. In addition to pre-departure tests, mandatory PCR tests are available on the second and eighth days. Citizens will also be subject to restrictions already in place in Red List countries.
WHAT LIST WILL TURKEY BE ON?
A statement from the UK Department for Transport said it was “too early to predict which country would be on which list.”
According to same media outlet, more than 61,000 new cases were reported on Wednesday in Turkey, which has been breaking Covid records (in the UK, the figure is about 2,400). There are also serious concerns about the reliability of the data being made public.
According to the analysis, which was provided to same media, Turkey where about 15 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, “is highly unlikely to start on the green list”. It is thought that it may be on the orange list instead. This, in turn, stands out as a factor that can radically affect the preferences of British holidaymakers in the summer and negatively affect Turkish tourism.
