In recent travel updates, UK removed India from its red list. As per the updates, travelers traveling to the UK from India will no longer undergo the 10-day mandatory quarantine at hotels. Instead, they can quarantine at home or at the place they are staying.
The UK upgraded India from its red list to the amber list. Pakistan, on the other hand, will remain on the red list until further notice. The UK previously added Pakistan to the red list in April on account of high covid infections.
Nigeria is now on the UK’s amber list for travel
Pakistan still on the UK’s red list
😲😲🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/z8vFA3ek3k
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) August 6, 2021
Read more: Pakistan added to England’s travel ‘red list’
On Wednesday night, UK transport secretary Grant Shapps announced the news through his Twitter account.
Covid cases comparison as on 6 Aug 2021:
India: 31,856,757 (31.8 Million)
Pakistan: 1,058,405 (1 Million only)
Source: https://t.co/V7cSshZjyJ
Which country should be on the Red List ? pic.twitter.com/ILwIAMufbC— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) August 6, 2021
“UAE, Qatar, India, and Bahrain will be removed from the Red List to the Amber List. All changes come into effect Sunday 8th August at 4 am,” he wrote.
UAE, Qatar, India and Bahrain will be moved from the Red List 🔴 to the Amber List 🟠
All changes come into effect Sun 8th August at 4am.
See the full list of changes made today here 👇 [2/3]https://t.co/iYAJhsdm3y
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) August 4, 2021
Apart from this, Mexico and Bangladesh are also among the countries that will remain on the red list. Furthermore, the UK added Germany, Austria, and Norway to the green list.
Read more: PM Khan, PM Johnson discuss travel red-list among other issues
British lawmakers angry over the UK for keeping Pakistan on the red list
Social media users expressed their concern over UK’s decision to keep Pakistan on the red list. According to them, this is prejudice against Pakistan. The country has managed its Covid situation comparatively better than India, yet it is on the red list. Members of the UK parliament too voiced their concerns.
Member of Bradford West Parliament, Naz Shah, even accused the UK government of favoring politics.
She posted her statement on Twitter and said this is not the first time the UK government showed such “callous” behavior when dealing with quarantine traffic light systems.
“India’s seven-day infection rate is 20 per 100,000 people and is now in the amber list but Pakistan, whose seven-day infection rate is just 14 per 100,000 people- well below the vast majority of amber list destinations, remains on the red list,” Naz Shah said while comparing the two countries.
My Statement: Pakistan remains on Red List whilst India moves to Amber pic.twitter.com/PLV898tCeo
— Naz Shah MP 💙 (@NazShahBfd) August 4, 2021
All Parties Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pakistan chief Yasmin Qureshi also expressed her displeasure.
“I am dismayed at the government’s decision to keep Pakistan on the travel red list whilst removing other countries in the Middle East and South Asia region. Pakistan has no variant of concern reported and cases remain relatively low when compared with India and the UK yet is punished unnecessarily,” she said.
Pakistan was first added to the red list early in April despite having the lowest infection rate at that time. Meanwhile, the UK added India much later even though it had a high number of infections in contrast.
Additionally, India suffered a massive Covid crisis which crippled the country. As per recent reports India recorded 42,982 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,18,12,114.
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