Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria are used to determine which countries are red listed for travel as a result of covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of the spread of variants of concern internationally. These risk assessments cover a range of factors for each country including assessment of surveillance and sequencing capability, available surveillance and genome sequencing data, evidence of in-country community transmission of COVID-19 variants, evidence of exportation of new variants to the United Kingdom or other countries and travel connectivity with the UK.
Decisions on ‘red-listing’ are taken by Ministers informed by evidence including the JBC’s analysis as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variant. The list of countries on the red list is kept under constant review.