South Africa was among the very first countries to be placed on the UK’s red list back in January following the emergence of the Beta variant of Covid-19.
It means for the past six months, all arrivals into the UK from South Africa have been required to quarantine in a government-appointed facility at their own expense.
More than 26,000 people have signed a parliament.uk petition calling on the government to "urgently review" its travel policy for South Africa "to ensure it is fully aligned with the latest scientific evidence" – which the petition’s creator suggests would involve removing the country from the red list.
The petition’s aims have been supported by Satsa, the body representing South Africa’s inbound tourism sector.
It says "all the evidence" suggests South Africa should be moved to the amber list owing to the low transmissibility of the Beta variant of Covid-19, first detected in South Africa, and the effectiveness of current vaccines against Beta.
Additionally, the organisation says Beta now represents less than 4% of new cases in South Africa, with Delta – the dominant variant in the UK and Europe – representing more than 90% of cases.
"South Africa’s infection rate is tracking well below the UK and several European countries on the amber list", The Telegraph reports Satsa as stating, with the organisation adding the UK’s stance looked "increasingly anomalous" now the likes of France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US have reopened travel to South Africa.
However, in a lengthy response to the petition published on Monday (23 August), the Department for Transport rejected the petition’s plea, warning the UK government "would not compromise" the progress made on the country’s vaccine roll-out "by allowing people to freely mix abroad and return or travel to the UK without proper checks and procedures".
"This is just the start for opening international travel, with the UK leading the way with a robust system," said the DfT. "As with all our coronavirus measures, we keep the red list under regular review, and our priority remains to protect the health of the public in the UK.
"Country allocations to the traffic light system are reviewed every three weeks, unless concerning evidence means we need to act faster to protect public health.
"At the most recent review on 4 August, it was decided that South Africa would remain on the red list as it continues to present a high public health risk to the UK from known variants of concern."
The UK government’s latest three-weekly traffic light system update is expected on Wednesday or Thursday this week (25-26 August).
