QUARANTINE travel rules have changed for some people flying into the UK following the final easing of lockdown.

People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 – meaning they’ve had both jabs – can now return from an ‘amber’ listed country without the need to quarantine for up to 10 days.

There is only a handful of countries on the Government’s green travel list at present.

The only locations on the green list from Stansted are Croatia, Israel and Malta. 

Countries on the green list are places UK citizens can travel to without the need to quarantine upon their return.

The destinations you can fly to from Stansted:

The destinations you can fly to from Southend Airport are all currently on the amber travel list – they are:

  • Reus (Spain)
  • Malaga (Spain)
  • Mallorca (Spain)
  • Alicante (Spain)
  • Bucharest (Romania)
  • Corfu (Greece)
  • Dublin (Ireland)
  • Faro (Portugal)
  • Kristiansand (Norway)
  • Milan (Italy)
  • Brest (France)

This means people traveling to these places must quarantine upon their return for 10 days, unless they have been fully vaccinated.

Read more >> More than 600 new cases of more contagious Delta variant recorded in Essex

You must also take a Covid test before returning to the UK, and pre-book tests for days two and eight of your quarantine period.

For those who have been fully vaccinated and have travelled to the above destinations, you do not have to quarantine or take a test.

However, this only applies to people who have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks.

Are there any exceptions to the rules?

Yes, is the simple answer.

Although France is on the amber list, the Government has announced anyone returning from the country must quarantine for 10 days – regardless of their vaccine status.

This is due to a rise in the Beta Covid variant in France happening right now.

Therefore passengers flying from Southend or Stansted to the country will be quarantining upon their return come what may.

There are fears Spain could soon join France on the new amber-plus list, meaning returning UK citizens would need to quarantine regardless of vaccine status.

Asked whether Spain was going to be added to the amber watchlist of travel restrictions, business minister Paul Scully said the decisions were “taken at Cabinet level”.

He told Sky News: “They’ll look at the data, and they’ll make sure that they can work out what is best to make sure that we keep transmission of the virus low, we keep the transmission of the variants low, because it’s the variants that are really key here to work out how they’re interacting with our vaccine programme.”

Asked whether rates being higher in Spain than in France, where those returning from the country are no longer exempt from quarantine, pointed to Spain being added to the amber list, Mr Scully said: “It’s not just about… we try and give people as much data as we can but it’s not just about the pure numbers.

“It’s also about the variants, and the style of variants, the Beta variant, for example, that’s quite prevalent in France at the moment, we’re looking at how that interacts with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“And so it’s… there’s a lot of factors that are involved in the decisions that are taken around travel.”