UK lifts Covid-19 travel advisory for Maldives
Maldives was removed from UK’s red list from September 22
British Airways | Velana Airport
The travel advisory issued by the United Kingdom against all but essential travel to Maldives due to the looming threats of Covid-19, has been lifted.
The country’s FCDO Travel Advice for British nationals living and travelling abroad, revealed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office no longer advises against all but essential travel to Maldives, based on the current Covid-19 risks in the country.
The travel advisory rooted from the decision to list Maldives under the United Kingdom’s Travel Red List following a spike in Covid-19 cases as a fourth and more infectious wave of the virus was confirmed back in May.
After weeks of remaining hopeful of being moved up to the United Kingdom’s Travel Amber List, Maldives was removed from the country’s Travel Red list, effective September 22. Maldives alongside Turkey and Pakistan were among eight countries removed from their Travel Red List.
Following removal, travelers from the Maldives will no longer be required to undergo a quarantine period of 10 days upon arrival.
The travel advisory was not lifted immediately after Maldives moved up to Amber list, due to which some of the travel agents and tour operators in UK had expressed concern.
Health Protection Agency (HPA) had previously revealed that the reason Maldives was on UK's red list was because the country had not completed the Genomic Sequencing test required to move up the list. Maldives was exempt from the Green List updated and publicized by the UK government in late August.
Green lists are among three lists compiled by governments -red, amber and green- and lists rules for travel to the respective nation from other countries.
As the country aims to welcome 1.3 million visitors this year, being removed from the United Kingdom’s red list will be a major boost to Maldives tourism. UK is also among the top 10 tourism markets of the Maldives, with 18,123 arrivals having been recorded from UK by September 22. UK was ranked third in the top tourism markets during last year, and fifth the year before.
