Covid international travel restrictions in the UK

All travelers require a negative Covid test 3 days prior to entering the country regardless of the colour designation that country may have.

Covid tests have a large range of costs and are not covered by the NHS when travelling so must be purchased privately. The cheapest I could find were from Tui which was as low as £20, whereas some clinic can charge upwards of £200 for a single test. Tui offers a test package for £60 to Green listed countries (package includes the multiple different tests that travelers need to do) that require a PCR test for entry and includes the lateral flow test to return to the UK and the PCR test for day two after landing back home.

• £20 – singular lateral flow – GREEN list
• £60 – full package – GREEN list
• £50 – lateral flow – AMBER list
• £90 – lateral & PCR test – AMBER list

Travelers from RED listed countries can only travel to the UK if they are a British national. Foreign travels cannot travel to the UK if they are from a RED listed country. British people traveling back to the UK from a RED listed country must stay in a quarantine hotel that costs £1750 per person for the duration of 10 days. It is also worth noting that the number of RED listed countries is increasing, not decreasing as more countries are being put into this category.

Travelers from AMBER listed countries must self-isolate for 10 days once they enter the UK, unless they agree to have an additional test, which is optional, (beyond the tests that are already required) on day 5 of the self-isolation. If that comes negative, the traveler’s isolation period is shortened to 5 days. Furthermore, travelers from AMBER list countries must have Covid tests done on the 2^nd and 8^th days of their stay after arriving in the UK. The list of AMBER countries is extensive but is also not exhaustive, as mentioned on the website. So even if a country does not appear on the government website, it does not mean they are in a certain category, they just have not been allocated thus far. It is easier to compare the RED and GREEN listed countries, as the list for AMBER countries is lengthy.

Countries on the GREEN list are as follows: Austrailia, Brunei, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Israel and Jerusalem, New Zealand, Singapore, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.

Any countries that are not mentioned in these two lists are more likely than not to have an AMBER classification.

As for the traveling, each airport has their own response, costs and procedures regarding Covid and travel. All airports require multiple negative Covid tests prior to entry and after entry, as well as a filled in Passenger Locator Form, or be subjected to an immediate fine. Fines are currently as follows:

• £1,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a mandatory test, doubled if they refuse the second test;
• £5,000 Fixed Penalty Notice, rising to £10,000, for arrival who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel.
• Anyone who tries to evade hotel quarantine by concealing that they have been in a country on the red list will be liable to prosecution and could face a prison sentence of 10 years.

Heathrow is using Terminal 3 specifically for flights from RED listed countries into the UK, but as previously mentioned, only British nationals can return to the UK, no foreign travelers can come from a RED listed country to visit the UK. All tests are done at Heathrow Airport Drive Through centre. Costs are as follows:

• Single PCR Test to Release (day 5) – £69
• GREEN Arrivals Test – £69
• AMBER Arrivals Test Package (Day 2 and 8) – £129
• AMBER Arrivals test with Test to Release – £189

Gatwick uses another private provider for their tests – Collinson. Tests are booked through Collinson’s website. They have a lot of different options so I will break them down.

Pre-Departure Tests

• Singular PCR – £82.50
• Lateral Flow – £40
• LAMP test – £85
• Antibody (only required for China) – £40

GREEN Arrivals

• Green PCR – £82.50
• Pre-Return Video Test – £42

AMBER Arrivals

• Amber PCR Package (2 x Tests) – £165
• Test to Release – £95
• Pre-Return Video Test – £42

London City Airport has a testing centre located in the main terminal offering the full range of Government approved tests for arriving and departing passengers. Again, Collinson nurses are the company administering the tests so the prices are the same as the above list. Note, that they currently have a promotional code LCYTEST that discounts all tests significantly. Both London Stansted and London Luton use Collinson to so have the same prices.

Quarantining when you arriving in the UK differs depending on the colour listing of the country the traveler comes from:

• GREEN list – do not need to quarantine but must take a Covid test on or before 2^nd day of visit
• AMBER list – must quarantine in place that the traveler is staying for 10 days (5 if Test to Release is taken) and must have 2 Covid tests.
• RED list – must quarantine in a hotel and take 2 Covid tests, representations are in airports and travelers from RED countries will be directed to them by border force.

Events held will not qualify for “Regular Work Abroad” as this exemption only applies when a traveler comes a minimum of once a week, and is also work that cannot be done remotely and is critically important. As such, as delegates at our events will have to observe the quarantine rules of the country colour listing they traveled from. There is no mention of how travel to venues work, presumably GREEN listed countries can use any form of transport they wish, but AMBER or RED listed countries must travel separately to decrease the risk of possible infections.

All countries have their own section on the government website, if one wants to check specific rules catered to that country of origin.