Covid: which countries are on England’s travel red list?

Despite scrapping its traffic light system for international travel earlier this year, England has reimposed a “red list” for the countries deemed to be the highest coronavirus risk.

The list dictates different rules for testing and quarantining travellers. A country may be placed on it based on factors, although including the prevalence of variants of concern, the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated and infection rates.

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South Africa and five other southern African countries are currently on the red list, after concerns were raised over the new B.1.1.529 variant.

Other countries with high infection rates have relatively free travel permitted. The chart below shows each country’s latest data for their case rate and vaccination rate.

Cases per 1m (last fortnight)

Vaccine doses per 100 people to date

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Our World in Data. Note: The figures relate to individual doses of vaccine, not people vaccinated. Since the intent is usually to give each person two doses, these figures do not represent a percentage of the population. Numbers as reported by individual countries. Dots sized by the number of 2019 UK visitors. Cases rates on a logarithmic scale.

Whether a country is on the red list, as well as the vaccination status of the traveller, will dictate whether and where they need to quarantine:

• Red list countries: travellers need a negative pre-departure Covid test, and will need to stay in hotel quarantine and complete a passenger locator form.
• Non-red countries and with approved UK vaccine: travellers need to show proof of vaccination and take a day-two test (which may be a lateral flow test).
• Non-red countries and without approved UK vaccine: travellers need a negative pre-departure Covid test, and will need to take day-two and day-eight PCR tests and self-isolate for 10 days (with option to test to release after five days).

Data notes

Vaccination rate data is sourced from Our World in Data and shows the latest available data for total vaccinations for every 100 people in a particular country. Countries that have not recorded a vaccination rate to date have not been included.

Cases data is the latest available from Johns Hopkins University, and shows the average number of new daily cases across the last two weeks. Each country’s dot is sized by the number of visitors it received from the UK in 2019, as sourced from the ONS. Case and vaccine rates data is the latest available. It does not reflect the data at the point at which a country was placed in its travel category.

The Republic of Ireland is not included as its inclusion in the common travel area means that it is exempt from the travel lists.