Foreign Office eases Covid-specific travel advice for Maldives and Egypt

It means the FCDO is no longer advising against all but essential travel to the Maldives, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Covid grounds.

All four were removed from the UK’s red list on 22 September, along with Turkey, Kenya, Oman, which all had their Covid-specific advice eased ahead of their removal from the red list.

Bangladesh was also removed from the red list last week, but is yet to have its FCDO advice amended.

It comes after the Foreign Office last week reiterated its advice would remain wholly independent of the traffic light categories, which are determined by the Department for Transport based on data from the government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre and other factors.

The travel industry has previously criticised the two departments for their lack of alignment.

The removal of the FCDO’s Covid-specific travel advisories is significant as an FCDO advisory against all but essential travel is typically the trigger for travellers’ insurance policies to be invalidated.

It also tends to be the cornerstone of where operators do and don’t operate.