UK’s Boris Johnson ‘hopeful’ foreign travel can resume from May 17

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday it is too soon to make a decision on foreign travel but is “hopeful” it could resume as early as May 17 “But I do not wish to give hostages to fortune, or to underestimate the difficulties we are seeing in some of the destination countries that people might want to go to. We don’t want to see the virus reimported to this country,” he said at a press conference.

Johnson said a task force this week will set out a “reasonable” plan on nonessential travel abroad. England has been in lockdown mode since late December as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with international travel restricted.

Once traveling abroad is allowed, quarantine rules will depend on a “traffic light system” – meaning that those traveling to countries on a “green” list will not be required to isolate upon their return to the U.K. Johnson said it was too soon to say which countries would be on which list. The prime minister also mentioned coronavirus passports — or “Covid status certifications” — but said the government was working through “complicated, ethical and practical issues” relating to them. The documents, which are expected to state whether a person has been vaccinated, has recently tested negative for the coronavirus or has natural immunity, would likely be used for travel abroad, he added.

UK’s Boris Johnson ‘hopeful’ foreign travel can resume from May 17, CNBC, Apr 6