What does the new traffic light system mean for people in West Yorkshire?

A green and amber category has been added to the current red list.

Beach
Author: Hannah NorburyPublished 7th Apr 2021

People in West Yorkshire are concerned about what the new traffic light system will mean for them.

As part of the roadmap, foreign holidays aren't allowed until 17th May, at the earliest.

The prime minister has said more information will be given this week.

Countries on the green list will not require isolation in the UK upon return, but a COVID test will need to be taken before departure and arrival back to the country.

The government says it will include "countries where we judge the risk to be lower, based for instance on vaccinations, infection rates, the prevalence of variants of concern, and their genomic sequencing capacity (or access to genomic sequencing)".

Francesca is from Italy, and now lives in Huddersfield.

She can't see her family due to the pandemic, she said:

"I never felt homesick before now, before the last year, I used to go back every 3 - 4 months, it's a strange feeling. It's been really hard.

"My new baby is going to turn 1 in 5 days and knowing that my sister hasn't been able to see her is heart breaking, it's definitely effected my mental health and I know I'm not the only one in this situation."

Countries on the red list:

Angola

Argentina

Bolivia

Botswana

Brazil

Burundi

Cape Verde

Chile

Colombia

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ecuador

Eswatini

Ethiopia

French Guiana

Guyana

Lesotho

Malawi

Mozambique

Namibia

Oman

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Qatar

Rwanda

Seychelles

Somalia

South Africa

Suriname

Tanzania

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Uruguay

Venezuela

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Countries which will be added to the red list at 4am this Friday 9 April:

Bangladesh

Kenya

Pakistan

Philippines

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