Turkey is the latest country to be removed from England’s quarantine-free travel corridor list.
Government transport secretary Grant Shapps added Turkey, which is popular with winter golfers, following the government’s latest assessment of the Covid-19 cases around the worldwide.
The Joint Biosecurity Centre and ministers looked at a range of factors beyond the 20 new cases per 100,000 over seven days measures which has traditionally been the point at which countries are added to the list that require returning visitors to self-isolate for 14 days.
Poland and the three Dutch Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba, were also added to the list.
UK arrivals from any of these destinations will have to self-isolate for two weeks from 4am on Saturday, October 3. The government has also increased potential fines up to £10,000 for people who breach self-isolation following their return from countries or regions without travel corridors.
A statement from the Department for Transport clarified why Turkey has lost its travel corridor status. “The Turkish Health Ministry has said it has been defining the number of new Covid-19 cases in a different way to the definition used by international organisations such as WHO and ECDC, meaning that the JBC’s (Joint Biosecurity Centre) risk assessment for Turkey has been updated to reflect the likely impact of this on the data for incidence and test positivity rates,” said the DFT.
Golf visitors to Turkey mainly head to the southern resort of Belek, where there are close to 20 courses to play, including The National, Sueno Golf, Carya, Gloria, Antalaya and the Cornelia Diamond Golf Resort.