Uganda is off the UK’s Covid travel red list effective today, Monday.
Last week, the UK government said it would cut the countries on this list from 54 to seven.
Travelers from countries on the UK Covid red list are required to quarantine in an approved hotel at their cost for 10 full days, which is very expensive.
The removal of Uganda from the red list means that Ugandans travelling to the UK will just have to do a PCR test on or before day 2.
According to the UK’s travel guidelines, eligible fully vaccinated passengers and eligible under 18s returning from countries and territories not on the red list, can do so with just a day 2 test.
Other passengers who are not fully vaccinated with an authorized vaccine returning from a non-red destination must still take a pre-departure test, a day 2 and day 8 test and complete 10 days self-isolation.
UK’s approved vaccines include Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen. The traveler must have had a complete course of one of these vaccines at least 14 days before he/she arrives in England.
The day the passenger gets their final dose does not count as one of the 14 days.
Formulations of these vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria and Moderna Takeda, also qualify as approved vaccines.
The passenger must show proof of vaccination.
In addition to Uganda, the other African countries that have been removed from the red list include Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Africa, DR Congo, Somalia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia among others.
Others are Angola, Botswana, Tunisia, Burundi, Cape Verde, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Sudan.
The development comes a week after Uganda’s national carrier, Uganda Airlines launched its Dubai route which is a gateway for many travelers looking to connect to the UK, the rest of Europe, the Far West and Far East.
UK’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes “mark the next step” in opening travel and that the UK government was “making it easier for families and loved ones to reunite”.
He said that with fewer restrictions “and more people travelling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery”.
All arrivals (including those transiting through UK) will still complete a passenger locator form. The online form must be completed by a passenger before they arrive in the UK.
The passenger can submit the form any time in the 48 hours before they arrive in the UK.
Passengers arriving in the UK will soon be able to use a photograph of a lateral flow test as a minimum requirement to verify a negative result, Shapps added.
