If you’re in Greece and returning to the UK, you’ve got hours, not days to make it back before 14 days of self isolating quarantine will be required. UK Government has added seven Greek Islands, including uber popular Mykonos and Santorini to its mandatory quarantine list, removing the areas from its Travel Corridors. Here’s everything you need to know.
UK Adds 7 Greek Islands To Quarantine
7 Greek Islands are no longer a part of the UK’s Travel Corridor List, which excludes select destinations deemed safe from mandatory quarantine upon arrival in the UK. The news follows weeks of hype around potential government u-turns on quarantine free travel to Greece.
From 0400AM on Wednesday, September 9th, all arrivals from: Crete, Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Santorini, and Zakynthos will need to quarantine upon return to the UK, or face fines, and or criminal records. Basically, if you’re not on a flight by Tuesday night, you’ll be quarantining.
Previous last minute quarantine moves by the UK Government have created chaos, with hundreds of 100,000’s of travelers attempting to rush back, resulting in airfare spikes and unnecessarily full flights.
Positive Changes In UK Quarantine?
The news is incredibly frustrating for the travel industry, but may be a minor improvement. For the first time since the UK introduced highly inflammatory and controversial quarantine moves, distinctions have been made as to regions, rather than countries as a whole.
All previous UK Government quarantine announcements applied to entire countries, which brought frustration in cases like Spain, where cases were isolated to small regions, while giving no exception to Canary Islands over 1,300 miles away.
In this latest iteration, mainland Greece, including Athens is not subject to new quarantine restrictions. If this trend were to continue, more surgical application of new quarantines could help restore at least some confidence in travel plans, with the belief that adequate distinction is being given to unique areas.
For now, it’s yet another body blow to the travel industry, and an all too abrupt end to summer travel plans for Greece, at least from UK visitors.
