I like your version better, but every report I have seen (daily telegraph, the sun, the times and FT) vary from green requiring a test before returning to the UK or a test on arrival to the UK. Also a few are saying May 17 likely not to be start date. I hope I'm wrong, but everything we have seen is the government's complete lack of care for anyone in the travel and aviation industries, which points to more months of this travel ban.

Yellow.
Red is the current hotel list.

May 17 will be the start date, but there won't be many Greens.

It's not whether government cares or not, it is whether people will want to be travelling or not. Does anyone want to travel now? Not really with lockdowns etc. When things open up? Absolutely. Remember the govt work for the people not vice versa. If other countries are travelling, then the UK will want to travel as well. Remember what happened last year? We went from full lockdown to pretty much unlimited travel within Europe within 2 months.

I expect something similar this year.

P.S. They can test me all they want lol its 20 EUR a test in GR. Just pointless bureaucracy, since when has testing prevented covid, the government itself admits most people don't fully self isolate when contacted by test and trace. All these tests everywhere, the only thing stopping infections are social distancing, immunity from natural infection or immunity from vaccinations.

If a covid passport whatever is rolled out it will be linked to your medical records. Do you think airlines are going to accept the handwritten vaccination reminded card they use in England that could be made on a home printer?

You can get a copy of any of your medical records if you contact your GP.

Anyone know when the J&J one dose vaccine is coming out in the UK?

Umm, yes. We had planned to be in the Caribbean for Easter and absolutely would rather be there than here today. There are lots of parts of the world that are “open.” Just look at the US - leisure travel nearly back to 100% domestically, UA hiring pilots, etc.

I think it will be the announcement before the testing requirement is clear. I am not opposed to a testing requirement even for green. Seems prudent all things considered (for at least a few months) but I’ll leave that one to the scientists. A single lateral flow test for green or something like that wouldn’t be unreasonable. I don’t think they are considering the pre-departure + 210 GBP day 2/day 8 PCRs for green.

The big question is the one you highlighted. The media is all over the map re: May 17. And its hard to understand whether references to later than May 17 would be the extension of the non-essential travel ban or the fact that the traffic lights would contain little or no green from May 17 which prevents holiday in most people’s minds in the UK (who only think of it as package holidays to Ibiza and Tenerife). That remains their single biggest question to me and I think the leaks are very unclear on this point. Some suggest it will happen, some suggest it will be delayed, some suggest no decision will be made yet (e.g., no date to switch the traffic light on).

I think it's at least 2 months away. There is no immediate sign of MHRA authorisation and even if there was it takes a while thereafter. Novavax may arrive sooner.

And there is a thread elsewhere in the UK and Ireland forum which tells you how to get these records, including vaccination details, via the NHS app. England only.

As an early 40-something with an Islington GP, does the low take-up data for higher age groups make it more - or less - likely that I’ll be offered a jab earlier rather than later? As in, does the vaccine get distributed to each area based on population size rather than expected take-up (and therefore areas w low take up more likely to have spares)? Anecdotally it’s been a complete lottery in London, with healthy 30-somethings I know in Westminster and K&C getting jabbed mid-March.

Holiday companies such as jet2 and Tui are selling their holidays from 18th May. They have been for some time and the marketing campaign is in full swing. All the usual destinations like the Canaries, Turkey, Spain etc. That means they have committed to hotels, flights, staff and so on. If these holidays do not happen, they are in big trouble. Getting out of that trouble would require big bailouts from the government and the government does not have piles of cash sitting around unused at present. The government underwrites the ATOL scheme, so whatever happens the government is on the hook for lots of money. I think whatever happens, non-essential travel will restart in a viable way from May 17th. The alternative is not affordable. It is hard to believe the government has not given some unofficial assurances to the holiday companies.

The government has always made it absolutely clear that international travel will start no earlier than 18 May and will depend partly upon factors outside the control of the UK such as infection rates in the destination countries. And things are currently not going too well in many of the traditional summer destinations.

If holiday companies have been selling holidays that turn out to be unviable then they should not be expecting bailouts from public money (and, to be fair, I'm sure that most of them will take the financial hit and not demand financial assistance).

These companies will not survive without the summer season. They had no choice and nothing to lose by selling the holidays from 18 May. It is only the government/tax payer that lose if they were to fail. We do not have too long to wait to find out what will really happen.

my friend in islington was at the GP the other day, also an early 40 and asked about it and was told that islington is still very much working on older groups still because there is "a massive older population in islington to work through" said his GP. and that naturally the contraction in supply has made things all the more complicated. but i am curious how things are allocated, i live in city which is small enough but i think with islington, it is a rather sizeable council.

meanwhile, just a few minutes east in hackney and tower hamlets (ie all my friends in shoreditch) i have seen about 5 or 6 different friends in their 30s there already getting jabbed in the last week.

For Amber countries do you think it will be a PCR test to return which will be harder to obtain, I was planning on using the BA one you take with you Qured?