St Lucia ‘in real peril’ of being added to red list

St Lucia faces being added to the UK’s red list for international travel, an analyst has warned.

This would mean travellers arriving in the UK from the Caribbean island would be forced to enter a quarantine hotel.

The Government is expected to update its traffic light travel lists on Thursday.

He said 189 new daily coronavirus cases on the island have been reported, which is 83% more than a week ago.

Two additional deaths have been confirmed.

Mr White added that Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Ghana could also be put on the red list.

Holidaymakers wanting to return from Morocco before a change in status came into force could struggle to find flights with spare capacity as the upcoming August bank holiday weekend is a major period for travel.

Destinations such as Spain, France and Greece will stay on the amber list, according to multiple reports.

Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said there is a “strong” case for Turkey to be moved from the red list to the amber list as it has started supplying “substantial data” to GISAID, a global database sharing figures on genetically sequenced coronavirus test samples.

Meanwhile the boss of Gatwick Airport called for the Government to scrap the testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers arriving in the UK from green and amber list locations.

All arrivals from green list locations must take a pre-departure test and another after they land.

Those travelling from an amber country must take the same tests, plus a second post-arrival test.

Chief executive Stewart Wingate said ending tests for fully vaccinated passengers is vital to avoid the UK’s aviation sector “falling further behind” countries in Europe and North America.

He explained: “If our Government would to do that and follow the lead of other European nations then we believe the pent up demand will start to flow through and passenger volumes will start to recover.

“In the UK, we’re at about 15-20% of our pre-pandemic passenger volumes.

“France and Germany are at about 50-60% of pre-pandemic passenger volumes.

“With that easing of travel restrictions, we should expect to see a very sharp recovery.”