A deadline for grading countries under the new traffic light system for international travel has been missed by the government.
The Commons' Transport Select Committee issued a report last week which stated the green, amber and red lists of destinations must be published by Saturday “at the latest”, but this has not happened.
However, the Department for Transport insisted the deadline - which is not recognised by the government - has not been missed and that it will confirm international travel arrangements by “early May”.
The ban on overseas leisure travel is expected to be lifted for people in England from 17 May as part of the next easing of coronavirus restrictions, leaving holidaymakers eager to discover which countries they will be able to travel to without needing to self-isolate upon their return.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced that surge testing will be deployed in Tower Hamlets this weekend after “several” cases of the South African and Braziliant variants were discovered. According to the east London council’s website, everyone over the age of 11 living in 10 different sub-districts are being encouraged to get tested for Covid-19.
