12 green countries in May

Prime minister Boris Johnson is due to give an update on the UK government’s plans to restart international travel on Monday (5 April), followed by the full Global Travel Taskforce recommendations on 12 April.

A traffic light system is likely to look at both a country’s Covid-19 infection rates and how many people have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. Currently the UK government has said international travel cannot resume until 17 May at the earliest.

Currently 12 countries would be classed as “green”, including the US, Malta, UAE, Portugal, Mexico, Barbados and Sri Lanka, while four leading destinations – Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Turkey – would fall into the “amber” category, where there is likely to be some element of quarantine on return to the UK.

This data is based on PC Agency and AudienceNet’s analysis of the latest European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control figures for Covid-19 infection and vaccinations.

“Green are the countries which should be accessible from 17 May, where we expect just a lateral flow test on return to the UK if you’ve been jabbed once,” said PC Agency boss Paul Charles.

“We check our data with scientists and we’ll update regularly to reflect changing rates, as we expect ambers to go green in the next four weeks.”