Portugal air bridge with UK ‘likely within days’ in boost to Brits’ summer holiday plan
PORTUGAL is set to be added to a list of countries with “air bridges” to allow for quarantine free travel.
The popular holiday destination looks likely to be added to the list of 59 to which travel is possible without the need to isolate on return.
The UK government released the full list of “safe” countries earlier this month, which lowered the travel ban and stopped the quarantine restrictions when returning to the UK.
But Portugal has seen a spike in coronavirus cases, particularly in Lisbon, leading to it being left out of the holiday travel corridor arrangement.
After intense lobbying from the Portuguese government, that decision is set to be reversed,
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Government would be making "more announcements" on international travel, following a review on Monday next week.
He told Sky News: "I will be talking more about the way forward on things like international travel corridors then.
"But now, each week actually, we are reviewing and, where required, updating the list of countries it's safe to travel to."
While many states in the US are also facing record high daily infections, some states with lower cases could also be included in the “air bridge” plans.
West Virginia, along with Oregon and Utah have less than 10 deaths per 100,000 people.
A source told : "Regional air bridges are an option for countries with localised outbreaks.
"The US is a major issue. If you judge it nationally, the absence of travel could go on for months, which is where individual testing of arrivals could work."
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Meanwhile, the Irish government has released its list of destinations for safe travel, but Britain is not on the list.
People arriving from Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino will not be required to isolate for two weeks.
Others arriving from overseas, including Britain - with limited exceptions such as essential supply chain workers - are required to fill in a passenger locator form and self-quarantine for 14 days.