BORIS Johnson has declared he's "looking at" plans to let double-jabbed Brits ditch quarantine, raising hopes for summer holidays.

The PM confirmed ministers are mulling an Israeli-style blueprint that would replace the need for self-isolation with daily testing.

? Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates


Such a system is also being considered for domestic use when fully vaccinated people come into contact with someone who's tested positive.

But even has he offered a ray of hope to sun starved families, Boris also warned this will be "a difficult year for travel".

And he all but strongly hinted that no new countries will be added to the green list when it's reviewed at the end of the week.

All of the most popular European destinations including Spain, Portugal, France, and Greece are currently classed as amber.

That means people are advised not to go there on holidays, and anyone that does must do 10 days of quarantine on their return.

Asked about allowing double-jabbed Brits to avoid self-isolation, the PM replied: "When it comes to travel we’ll certainly be looking at that.

But I want to stress that this is going to be – whatever happens – a difficult year for travel.

"There will be hassle, there will be delays, because the priority has got to be to keep the country safe and stop the virus coming back in."

The PM's remarks represent a gloomy outlook for foreign hols in the short-term but leave some hope for later in the summer.


Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said No 10 will take a "safer rather than sorry" approach to reopening our borders.

And he insisted new figures that show just one in every 200 arrivals from amber list countries test positive "don't tell the full picture".

He said: "You can appreciate that we want to keep people as safe as possible and that's why we've maintained the amber list.

"I totally get the frustration. For me it's been very difficult because I want to go on holiday but I've chosen not to because of the restrictions.

"It's a difficult one to balance. It's encouraging, the data we've seen from amber list countries.

"But at the moment we want to take an approach that's more safer rather than sorry."

Ministers are piloting a domestic scheme that would allow the fully-jabbed who have come into contact with an infected person to escape quarantine.

Matt Hancock confirmed he's looking at replacing the mandatory 10-day self-isolation period with daily testing instead.

There have been reports that approach could be extended to returning holidaymakers to open up amber countries for travel, too.

But officials cautioned that no decision will be made on the idea until much later on in the summer.

A Whitehall source told Politico: "We know the vaccines are effective and we want to minimise interruption to people’s daily lives.

"So it is clearly an attractive policy if it can be shown to be safe — there are pilots ongoing."

A top Public Health England medic also hinted double-vaccinated Brits won't have to isolate after foreign trips in future.

Dr Susan Hopkins said there may be "alternatives to isolation" for holidaymakers who have received both of their Covid jabs.

But she warned that Brits should stick to home holidays this summer.

Asked if there is a chance those who have had two jabs could go abroad, she told the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show: "We'll be looking at the evidence from other countries.

"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 that in a time in the future, I'm not sure when, I can imagine a situation where we will have alternatives to isolation for people who have two doses of the vaccine."

    Source: Read Full Article