Covid-19: Portugal queries amber status as UK tightens rules

Portugal has questioned the UK's decision to remove it from the travel green list from Tuesday.

The move to the amber list means UK tourists should not visit the country and returnees must isolate for 10 days.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps cited rising cases and a Covid mutation found in Portugal. But the travel firm Tui said 50% of passengers due to travel there in June are still planning to go.

Portugal said it could not understand the "logic" of the UK's move.

Cristovao Norte, Portuguese MP for the Algarve, said he was "perplexed" by the government's decision.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Portugal was "not expecting the decision", as beyond a spike in the capital, Lisbon, its transmission rate was "more or less" that of the UK's.

"We wear masks, we obey the rules, we maintain social distancing, vaccination is growing steadily. So I'm a little bit perplexed," he said.

Manuel Lobo Antunes, the Portuguese ambassador to the UK, told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire that Portugal had had 12 cases of the Nepal variant, and that the Covid situation in the country did not justify its move to the amber list.

Labour said downgrading Portugal was "not the answer", calling for the amber list to be scrapped altogether - and citing reports that more than 50,000 people were travelling to the UK every day.

While Portugal is being moved to England's amber list, no new destinations will be added to the green list, where travellers must be tested but do not have to quarantine on their return.

Seven countries - Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Trinidad and Tobago - are being added to the red list.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have confirmed they will adopt the same changes, which come into effect at 04:00 BST on 8 June.

The green list will reviewed again on 28 June.

The travel industry has criticised the change, saying it will threaten jobs and consumer confidence - with the boss of Heathrow Airport warning the sector faces "another lost summer".

Alan Richards travelled to the Algarve on Saturday with seven of his family, including grandchildren, and they were due to return home on Tuesday.

Now he says there is no possible way to get back before Portugal is moved to the amber list, costing the family hundreds of pounds in additional Covid-19 tests, keeping him from his job on London Underground for ten days and forcing his seven-year-old granddaughter to miss school.

"We're not ignorant people, we understood that there may well be a situation where if anything changes you would start having to make plans to cut short your holiday. That's acceptable," he says.

But with just five days' notice of the change, there is not enough time to book new pre-flight Covid tests and get the results before departure. Alan says he has been told there is a four-day wait just to get a test in Portugal.

The extra coronavirus tests they will be required to take during the ten-day quarantine when they return will also cost £120 each, he says, adding £960 to the family's holiday bill.

A week's notice would have made all the difference, allowing them to rebook travel if necessary, Alan says.

"No matter how you look at this, the timescales for returning are absolutely awful. We're in a frantic situation and none of us can do a thing about it," he says.

"Mr Shapps needs to understand the awful situation that he's put hundreds of thousands of people in. He needs to resign."

The UK government said the decision to move Portugal, including Madeira and the Azores, to the amber list followed increased concern about a mutation of the Delta variant, which was first identified in India.

The Department for Transport said 68 cases of the Delta variant had been identified in Portugal, including cases with an additional mutation, being referred to as the Nepal mutation.

Public Health England (PHE) said there were cases of the mutation in several countries, including a small number in the UK, and that it was investigating whether it could be more more transmissible and less effectively tackled by vaccines.

The number of positive Covid cases in Portugal has nearly doubled since the last review, the department said, adding the situation "has required swift action to protect the gains made with the [UK] vaccine rollout".

On 2 June, Portugal had 5.4 new cases per 100,000 people per day, which was only a little higher than the UK at 5.1 - but differences in the amount of testing being done make direct comparisons difficult.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the government had chosen to adopt a "cautious approach".

At end of April, the transport secretary told Parliament the government was looking at producing a "green watch list" where it could indicate "a couple of weeks in advance" when it was studying a variant - in order to give people time to return to the UK before rule changes.

Mr Jenrick told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the "watch list system remains, if it's possible" and that if ministers saw case and positivity rates increasing then "one may be able to use that... to give people and the industry that forward guidance".

But he said the government might need to "act more swiftly" as new variants and mutations emerged.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the decision to move Portugal to the amber list "isn't based on any science or public health" and accused the government of making up policy "as they go along".

"What we don't understand is why the UK, which has been so successful with vaccines, is expecting its vaccinated citizens travelling to Portugal coming back to quarantine," he told BBC Breakfast.

Tui said that while half of its passengers booked to go to Portugal in June were still planning to travel, the remaining 50% had amended their dates.

The operator is not currently offering cancellations for trips while the Foreign Office is not advising against travel to Portugal.

The change to Portugal's status means holidaymakers face a scramble for flights home before the new rules come into force.

On Thursday, the UK reported 5,274 new cases - the highest figure since 26 March - and another 18 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

PHE believes the Delta variant is now dominant in the UK and that it may be linked to a higher risk of hospital admission.

Prof Neil Ferguson, an expert on the spread of infectious diseases who sits on the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said the current "best estimate" was that the Delta variant could be "60% more transmissible" than the previously dominant Kent variant known as Alpha.

Asked about whether the ending of Covid restrictions in England on 21 June needed to be delayed, he told the Today programme the data was "pointing this week in a more negative direction than it was last week", so it pointed "towards the direction of being cautious".

In other key developments:

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