The Health Secretary, pictured leaving his London home this morning, confirmed ministers were 'working on' relaxing restrictions for double-jabbed adults, which could see the current mandatory 10-day self-isolation from amber and red list countries replaced with daily Covid tests
Matt Hancock today confirmed Israel-style plans to scrap travel quarantine rules for fully-vaccinated Britons may soon come into force, bolstering hopes that summer holidays could still be on the cards.
The Health Secretary confirmed ministers were 'working on' relaxing restrictions for double-jabbed adults, which could see the current mandatory 10-day self-isolation from amber and red list countries replaced with daily Covid tests.
But he said No10 could not press ahead with the plan for 31.3million Britons just yet because they are waiting to see if 'it will be effective'.
Mr Hancock confessed that he hopes progress will be made 'soon'. He told BBC Breakfast: 'We’re not ready to be able to take that step yet, but it’s something that I want to see and we will introduce, subject to clinical advice, as soon as it’s reasonable to do so.'
Fully-jabbed Israeli citizens wanting to travel abroad must take two tests — one three days before boarding their plane on the way home, and the other when they touch down. They must also show border control staff proof they have been vaccinated on an official app.
As well as relaxing travel quarantine rules, Whitehall insiders say ministers also want to follow the US in ditching stay-at-home orders for fully-vaccinated people who come into contact with the infected.
No10 is also facing fresh calls to re-evaluate the travel list after data revealed fewer than one in 250 travellers from amber list countries tested positive for Covid last month. Just 89 of 23,465 people who travelled into the UK from nations such as Spain between May 20 and June 9 had a positive Covid test.
The cases all came from just 16 of the 167 countries on the amber list, according to NHS Test and Trace data. And there were none classed as being 'variants of concern' — Alpha, Beta, Delta or Gamma strains.
Asked about whether No10 was considering replacing quarantine rules for fully-vaccinated travellers, Mr Hancock told Sky News: 'We know the vaccine is working.
'That's why it is so important so many people are coming forward to get it and we're always looking at how we can replace the restrictions we've had to have as a country with the protection you get from the vaccine.
'In fact, that's the whole point of the vaccine – to protect life and get us out of these restrictions.'
Mr Hancock added: 'Now, we are not able to make any specific announcements on this today. It is something that we're working on and I very much hope we'll be able to make progress soon.'
No10 is also facing fresh calls to re-evaluate the travel list after data revealed fewer than one in 250 travellers from amber list countries tested positive for Covid last month. Just 89 of 23,465 people who travelled into the UK from nations such as Spain between May 20 and June 9 had a positive Covid test
The cases all came from just 16 of the 167 countries on the amber list, according to NHS Test and Trace data. And there were none classed as being 'variants of concern' — Alpha, Beta, Delta or Gamma strains
His comments came after Dr Susan Hopkins, Public Health England's Covid strategy chief, yesterday said there may be 'alternatives to isolation' for holidaymakers who have had both jabs.
She told the BBC One's Andrew Marr show: 'We've talked a lot to countries like Israel who are ahead of us in the vaccination campaign.
'And they are now really looking at allowing people to come into their country who've had two vaccines and not needing to isolate, and they are allowing their population to travel more.
'We will need to be alert and will need to consider how we can measure the response of these vaccines to new variants that come along.
'But we are moving steps forward, and I think in a time in the future, I'm not sure when, I can imagine a situation where we'll have alternatives to isolation for people who have two doses of the vaccine.'
As well as easing the rules on travel quarantine for fully vaccinated Brits, ministers also want to ditch stay-at-home orders for those who come into contact with Covid cases.
Yesterday's death figure of six was a slight drop from last week's total of eight, a sign that the vaccination programme is continuing to keep mortality rates low despite the increase in cases
