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LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Britain will on Friday consider
easing England's COVID-19 rules for international travel after
the travel industry complained that a myriad of onerous rules
and red tape were hobbling airlines, holiday and tourism
companies.
In a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus,
Britain has a maze of different rules requiring expensive
private testing and quarantine and a so-called traffic light
system which ranks destinations as green, amber and red.
"The COVID sub-committee of cabinet that decides these
things will be considering that probably later today,"
Agriculture Secretary George Eustice told Sky News.
The British travel industry has called on the government to
ease travel restrictions, force companies to offer cheaper
testing and allow those who are double vaccinated more freedom.
Tourists and ministers have complained about the price
travellers are being charged for obligatory private COVID-19
tests - which are listed as costing around 50 pounds but which
can cost up to 399 pounds, according to current listings.
Ministers will cut the number of "red list" countries -
currently 62 - by removing the "amber list" and those who are
double vaccinated will no longer have to pay for costly
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, The Times newspaper
reported.
For those returning from red-list countries, quarantine
hotels are expected to remain in place, the newspaper said.
($1 = 0.7247 pounds)
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and
Sarah Young)
