Covid: Northern Ireland to relax international travel rules

Northern Ireland will relax rules around international travel from next month.

The traffic light system for international travel will change from October 4, with a single “red list” of destinations and a “simplified process” for travellers for the rest of the world.

Proposed changes to pre-departure and post-arrival testing for travellers are under consideration and will be discussed by Executive ministers next week.

The changes come following a meeting of UK Government ministers.

The new travel framework is to simplify the current process, a statement from the Northern Ireland Executive said.

There were also changes to the red list, with a number of countries, including Turkey, Egypt and the Maldives, removed from the red list from September 22.

FAir travel to the UK continues to be severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, new figures show. Just 1.4 million airline passengers arrived in the country last month, according to Home Office data. Issue date: Thursday August 26, 2021.
Steve Parsons

Anyone travelling from the EU and the US who is fully vaccinated will no longer have to self-isolate or take a day eight PCR test.

From October 4, fully vaccinated travellers from a number of countries, including Canada, Australia, Israel and New Zealand, will be included in the policy.

It comes after the UK Government announced a relaxation of international travel rules.

It was confirmed on Friday that people arriving into England who are fully vaccinated will no longer need a pre-departure test before returning from non-red list destinations, and from the end of October they will be able to replace the day two PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow test.

On Saturday, six further deaths of patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 were reported in Northern Ireland.

The Department of Health said there had also been 1,072 new confirmed cases in the last 24-hour reporting period.

A total of 2,505,003 vaccines have been administered.