On August 8, the UK updated the country risk list for covid. Today country is divided into 3 colors, green, amber and red, according to which travelers are subjected to different and strict requirements. In last week’s update, India, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were removed from the red list while Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway were put on the green list. France has instead moved to the amber list, of intermediate risk. Mexico, Georgia, La Reunion and Mayotte are the last ones to be added to the red list.
If coming from a red-listed country, in Britain, travelers will have to observe a quarantine period in a designated hotel, have a negative swab even if fully vaccinated.
Kenya resented the UK’s decision to keep the country on the red list. The head of the foreign ministry’s cabinet, Ababu Namwamba, said the government would take action soon. Back in April this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated in an official communication that the UK’s choice to put the country on the red list would result in a negative effect on trade, tourism and security cooperation.
The UK’s response to calm the waters was not late, with London announcing the dispatch of doses of Astrazeneca vaccine (800,000 doses arrived last week) and a program to enable some Kenyan laboratories to genomic sequence the swabs.
