Turkey removed from travel corridor list

Shapps confirmed on Thursday afternoon (1 October), in a string of tweets, that Turkey, Poland and the Dutch Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba would lose their quarantine-free travel corridor status.

UK arrivals from any of these destinations will have to self-isolate for two weeks from 4am on Saturday (3 October). The government has also increased potential fines up to £10,000 for people who breach self-isolation following their return from countries or regions without travel corridors.

"The latest data indicates we need to remove Turkey, Poland, and Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba from the #TravelCorridor list this week," said Shapps.

"This means if you arrive from these destinations from 4am Saturday 3 October, you will need to self-isolate."

On Poland specifically, Shapps added: "Data from Poland shows that test positivity has nearly doubled increasing from 3.9% to 5.8% alongside a rapid increase in weekly cases, causing the Joint Biosecurity Centre to update their recommendation."

A statement from the Department for Transport clarified why Turkey has lost its travel corridor status.

"The Turkish Health Ministry has said it has been defining the number of new Covid-19 cases in a different way to the definition used by international organisations such as WHO and ECDC, meaning that the JBC’s (Joint Biosecurity Centre) risk assessment for Turkey has been updated to reflect the likely impact of this on the data for incidence and test positivity rates," said the DFT.

The Foreign Office (FCDO) is also now advising against all non-essential travel to Poland and Turkey, as well as the Caribbean island of St Maarten and St Martin.

But the FCDO has added exemptions to this advice to British Virgin Islands and Seychelles, which both already have travel corridors with the UK.