England eases COVID-19 rules for international travellers

Workers walk towards Tower Bridge during the morning rush hour, amid a relaxation of lockdown restrictions during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in London

England set out measures to boost international travel on Friday, abandoning expensive COVID-19 testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers, scrapping its traffic light system and adding eight countries to its safe list.

Travellers returning to England from Turkey, Pakistan, and the Maldives will not have to quarantine on their return as they are removed from the so-called COVID red list for travel, British transport minister Grant Shapps said.

Shapps also said under the new proposals destinations will simply be ranked low or high risk, instead of red, amber and green.

"We’re making testing easier for travel," he said on Twitter.

REUTERS / Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Michael Holden