PEOPLE travelling into Scotland from France will no longer have to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated.
The decision was announced last night during the latest review of travel restrictions, realigning the country with the rest of the EU due to a reported fall in their Beta variant case rate.
The review of international travel regulations has also moved India from the red travel list to amber.
Spain remains on the amber list but travellers are advised to be cautious as investigations continue into a new variant originating in South America and now present in Spain.
It is recommended passengers choose a PCR test prior to departure from Spain, rather than other available tests such as lateral flow, to give greatest assurance before travelling.
The latest changes come into effect at 4am on Sunday following consideration of analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC).
The countries moving from the red to amber are India, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Georgia and Mexico, as well as the French overseas territories of Réunion and Mayotte, have moved to the red list which means travellers returning to Scotland will have to stay in managed isolation for 10 days.
In line with current guidance, individuals should not travel to red list countries on holiday, or for any leisure purposes.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport Michael Matheson said: “These latest changes make it clear that international travel remains challenging.
“Recent relaxations to travel restrictions for fully vaccinated people were due to the huge success of the Scottish Government’s vaccination programme.
“It is vitally important we protect that progress through continued vigilance on importation, and we continue to urge caution given the risks caused by variants of concern.”
The Scottish Government added that in light of a decision taken in Westminster, which manages contractual arrangements on behalf of the four nations, the price of a stay in managed isolation is also increasing from £1,750 to £2,285.
The Scottish Government will review existing hardship and welfare arrangements for travellers in managed isolation to ensure they remain suitable following this change.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here