Travellers returning from Gibraltar can now avoid the 14-day quarantine regulation for the entire United Kingdom.
Gibraltar has been exempt from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s advice against all non-essential international travel since 4 July. However, earlier this month when the FCDO decided to maintain Gibraltar on its list of exempted countries and territories, Wales surprisingly reintroduced restrictions.
Now the Welsh authorities have relented and, after reviewing their “safe list”, are allowing travellers to avoid obligatory self-isolation when they return home from a trip to Gibraltar.
UK authorities are still advising travellers of their “legal duty” to report to the Government of Gibraltar if they have been in a “relevant area” in the 14 days before their arrival in Gibraltar.
Latest COVID-19 travel guidance for Gibraltar can be viewed here.
According to the Gibraltar government, a “relevant area” means a country, area or territory outside the European Union, but not the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican. Also (currently) excluded from the list are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and China.
This week, the government introduced an online passenger locator and “relevant area” form that replaces the existing manual forms.
The government said it would use the information provided in the forms to:
1. Contact the individual if they or someone they have travelled with develops COVID-19 symptoms.
2. Identify travellers arriving from “relevant areas” and act if someone is unwilling to get tested for COVI-19 or is refusing to self-isolate.
Passengers will only be able to complete the form once they have checked in and been allocated their seat number. “It is a free service. You do not need to pay another website or business to provide your contact details for you.”
The form and additional information are available at: www.passengers.egov.gi
Photo by Fernando Paredes Murillo on Unsplash