Explained: UK upgrades India to amber category; what it means for travellers

Under the red list, UK advises its citizens not to travel to any of the countries under the Red list. Exceptions are made for British or Irish nationals or anyone who has residence rights in the UK. They can enter the UK from a country that is under the Red list. These nationals or residents are then placed in quarantine for 10 days in a hotel and are to take three COVID-19 tests. This includes the one that is taken before the departure from the origin country.

Under the amber List, a traveller has to mandatorily undergo three COVID-19 tests. The first test should be undertaken three days before departure, the second test on day one or latest day 2 after entering and the third test on Day 8. A mandatory 10-day home quarantine is also enforced.

The exceptions are once again for the UK Nationals if they are fully vaccinated. They need not undergo home quarantine or the Day 8 test. Also, any traveller fully vaccinated in the US or from EU countries need not undergo quarantine or take the Day 8 test.

Under the green list, travellers before departure from origin country are required to undertake a COVID-19 test and on arrival, a second test must be taken before the second day of arrival. Home or hotel quarantine is required only if the test result comes as positive.

As the UK authorities have moved India from red to amber, fully vaccinated travellers from India won’t need to be quarantined for 10 days. But home quarantine along with the three COVID-19 tests is mandatory.

India was moved to the red list after the Delta variant led to a massive second wave in the country.

The United Kingdom has only approved a select number of vaccine manufacturers like Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech. India’s Covishield (Serum Institute of India), Covaxin (Bharat Biotech) and Russia’s Sputnik don’t come under their list of recognized vaccinations as of now.

As per PTI, India made Covishield manufactured by Oxford/AstraZeneca may get approved by UK.

United States, Canada, China, France, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, North Korea, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Bhutan, and Vietnam among others come under the amber category.

The red list constitutes Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives, and Nepal.

Around 35 countries, including Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore are currently on the green list.