Non-essential travel to the UK allowed from Monday

Non-essential trips to and from the UK will be allowed as of Monday, with passengers only needing to present a negative test for covid-19 carried out in the previous 72 hours when arriving and no need for quarantine.

By TPN/Lusa, in News, COVID-19, Tourism · 14 May 2021, 13:33 · 12 Comments

The government decision will be taken today, a source from the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva told Lusa.

According to this decision, which will take effect from 00:00 on 17 May, the United Kingdom will be included in the "list of countries whose epidemiological situation allows any travel to be made, subject to the presentation of a negative PCR test, carried out within 72 hours prior to the flight date".

Updates to follow

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Comments

Thanks for ignoring the health risks to the resident population to appease the greedy slave labour paying hoteliers and Airbnbers.

Well done money beats the safety of the people.

By James from Algarve on 14 May 2021, 13:44

So the turism industrys lobbing, For making profits. Wins over common sence. Peoples health and EU recomendations.

I am happy to leave Portugal over the summer.

But Iknow I will pay the price after the turist season. When we have to go back to state of emergency and lock down. Where we have already been for half a year.

By Gustav from Algarve on 14 May 2021, 13:57

So there is an Indian variant far more transmissible than any other.
Tourists will be allowed to mingle with a huge unvaccinated population in Portugal when they have had a negative test three whole days prior to travelling here.
So the resident population is being gambled that none of those people went on to get Covid.

The way people are treated here it is not surprising their government is happy to risk their lives to appease greedy hoteliers that pay 600 euros a month before tax to their staff.

How to create the next crisis in one easy step

By James from Algarve on 14 May 2021, 14:25

Travel to Portugal => Get inside EU.
The border Portugal- Spain is open => Englismen can travel to Spain via Portugal.
Not far from Faro to Costa del Sol.

Even Spain is not on the green list. England will get people returning with flights from Portugal, that have spent their vacation in Spain.

By Gustav from Algarve on 14 May 2021, 16:06

Nice, but not so for the Dutch that have many businesses in Portugal with a lot of portugese people employed. They can not come over to Portugal without a negative pcr ( which I fully understand) and a quarantine of 14 days, which is quite ridiculous. But the English can come over. Great!

By Dion from Porto on 14 May 2021, 16:47

I don't understand why the Portuguese government are prepared to risk the lives of people living here by allowing people from the uk to travel here. The vast majority of people have followed the rules and therefore we are now in a strong position. Yet now we put all this at risk from the Indian variant that is escalating in the Uk very quickly. Don't make sense to me.

By Chris from Other on 14 May 2021, 18:15

Boris is anxious. But not the Portuguses goverment. They risk the health of us. Read below.
===
Boris Johnson has said he is "anxious" about the Indian variant of Covid and is "ruling nothing out" to tackle it.

Asked specifically whether surge vaccinations could be introduced, a No 10 spokesman said ministers "want to consider all options".

This would mean focusing extra doses of vaccine in specific areas to immunise a larger section of the population, and reduce the spread of variants.

Public Health England has recorded 1,313 UK cases of the Indian variant.

The figures released on Thursday are more than double the 520 cases recorded by PHE up to 5 May.

Dr Susan Hopkins, Covid-19 strategic response director at PHE, said: "Cases of this variant are rising in the community and we are continuously monitoring its spread and severity to ensure we take rapid public health action.

By Gustav from Algarve on 14 May 2021, 19:10

Tourism before science after a long winter locked up in Lisboa..Portugal decides to open for tourists from the UK which means it is actually opening itself to welcome the Indian variant..as no quarentine only a negative test 72 hours before are mandatory while the new variant is just starting to spread in the UK, it just does not make sense! And no need for rocket science that soon the Indian variant will be dominant and we are back where we started..

By Roszica from Lisbon on 14 May 2021, 19:16

Given the number of non Portuguese registered cars and motorhomes and the number of rental cars you can see across the Algarve non essential travel seems to have been the norm for several weeks now.

By Terence McDine from Algarve on 14 May 2021, 19:56

Wrong move - I'm sure these people do not have a brain - just waiting for the next lockdown now. Shame on you all.

By Carol Carpenter from Algarve on 15 May 2021, 09:01

Only people from UK can visit Portugal ?
Why not also Germans and Italians ?
I though that Portugal is a member of the EU and not of the CommonWealth

By Frank from Other on 15 May 2021, 11:02

Portugal should not be opening its doors this early just to appease hotel owners in the Algarve. Not because of the EU demands to keep borders closed but because the Portuguese government places its peoples’ health at great risk.
Let the English come - but only the fully vaccinated ones. Put the others back on a plane to UK. You can’t just let ANY and ALL tourists in. This is madness

By Christian from Other on 16 May 2021, 15:46