FAMILIES face paying £600 for Covid tests to go on foreign holidays this summer – even if the destination is on the green list.
Under the Government’s traffic light system each traveller has to take at least two tests on holidays to low-risk “green” destination.
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Boris Johnson is set to reveal a traffic light system for overseas holidays based on other countries’ rates of the bug and their vaccination levels.
Summer holiday hotspots will be ranked under a new traffic lights system — letting Brits fly to “green” countries with low Covid rates and strong vaccine rollouts.
The PM is also tipped to reveal more on vaccine passports, lockdown and social distancing.
For those planning to go abroad, arranging pre-departure tests could add at least £400 to the cost of a holiday abroad for a family of four.
HOLI-YAY
While the second post-arrival test could put on a further £200.
On arrival, destinations could also demand pre-holiday tests to be shown at the border for those not fully vaccinated, which could add potentially hundreds more pounds to the cost of a trip.
On the way home, another test would be taken 72 hours before boarding UK-bound flights, plus another two days after arriving, to make sure travellers have not picked up a mutated Covid strain, the Daily Mail reports.
Traffic light travel system
GREEN: Anyone returning from these countries must take a pre-flight lateral flow test at their own cost, then take a “sequencing test” within days of landing to check for new strains;
AMBER: Like green but those entering the UK must isolate at home for ten days after arrival. They can get out after five days with a negative test paid for privately;
RED: Arrivals must isolate on their return in an authorised hotel at their own cost — as they do currently.
Last night it was claimed that people who have had two doses of the vaccine could avoid quarantining when returning from a medium-risk “amber'” country.
Those who are fully vaccinated may only have to have one test upon arriving back in the UK, the Daily Telegraph reported.
This is compared with multiple tests and a ten-day quarantine for those who have not been jabbed.
It has also claimed vaccinated holidaymakers could return to the UK from a green list county without having to do a test.
A Government source said: “For amber countries, you would remove home quarantine.
“The debate is whether there will be any testing required instead of quarantine.”
More travel options could be potentially delayed until July or August.
Summer holiday hotspots will be ranked under a new traffic lights system — letting Brits fly to “green” countries with low Covid rates and strong vaccine rollouts.
It has been reported there could be as few as 12 countries on the government “green list” for quarantine-free travel initially.
The move, to be unveiled by Boris Johnson, will see Bahrain, with its rapid vaccine rollout, along with Dubai and the US top destination wish lists.
Caribbean islands including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados, which already have advanced vaccination programmes, are also being tipped as among the first to reopen.
But nations with high virus cases and slow jab rollouts will require more quarantining.
That could deter millions of Brits from heading to Spain’s Benidorm and other European favourites such as France and Greece.
Plans under consideration by the Government’s global travel taskforce could mean holidaymakers who have been fully vaccinated will be able to return from ‘green list’ countries without any tests on arrival.
This is as long as they have negative test results before leaving.
Those not vaccinated would require another test when they get back.
But travel bans will be in force for “red list countries”.
Brits will have to quarantine in hotels, costing up to £1,750 per person. They would be tested on days two and eight.
