Fully Vaccinated Malaysians allowed travel to UK without Quarantine next month

Fully Vaccinated Malaysians allowed travel to UK without Quarantine next month

Here are some good news to share. The UK government announced that fully vaccinated Malaysians and other fully vaccinated travelers from the rest of the world can travel to UK without quarantine. However, Sinovac is not listed under the ‘approved’ vaccines to enter UK.

Fully vaccinated travellers for at least 14 days from around the world can enter UK from 4am Monday 4 October 2021. This changes to international travel rules are published on the UK government website at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england

Changes to international travel rules

From 4am Monday 4 October 2021, the rules for international travel to England will change from the red, amber, green traffic light system to a single red list of countries and simplified travel measures for arrivals from the rest of the world. The rules for travel from countries and territories not on the red list will depend on your vaccination status.

Travel from the rest of the world if you are fully vaccinated

From 4am Monday 4 October, if you have been fully vaccinated for at least 14 days:

• under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas
• with a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Dominica, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan – mixing between two-dose vaccines (Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna) in this list is also recognised
• under a formally approved COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial in the US, Canada and Australia and have a proof of participation (digital or paper-based) from a public health body

You must:

• book and pay for a day 2 COVID-19 test – to be taken after arrival in England
• complete your passenger locator form – any time in the 48 hours before you arrive in England
• take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 after you arrive in England

You do not need to:

• take a pre-departure test
• take a day 8 COVID-19 test
• quarantine at home or in the place you are staying for 10 days after you arrive in England

You must be able to prove that you have been fully vaccinated (plus 14 days) with a document (digital or paper-based) from a national or state-level public health body that includes, as a minimum:

• forename and surname(s)
• date of birth
• vaccine brand and manufacturer
• date of vaccination for every dose
• country or territory of vaccination and/or certificate issuer

If your document from a public health body does not include all of these, you must follow the non-vaccinated rules. If not, you may be denied boarding.

If you are fully vaccinated in the US, will also need to prove that you are a resident of the US.

If you are fully vaccinated, but do not qualify under these fully vaccinated rules, you must follow the non-vaccinated rules.

Travel from the rest of the world if you are not fully vaccinated

From 4am Monday 4 October, you must follow these rules if you:

• do not qualify under the fully vaccinated rules
• are partially vaccinated
• are not vaccinated

Before you travel to England you must:

• take a pre-departure COVID-19 test – to be taken in the 3 days before you travel to England
• book and pay for day 2 and day 8 COVID-19 tests – to be taken after arrival in England
• complete your passenger locator form – any time in the 48 hours before you arrive in England

After you arrive in England you must:

• quarantine at home or in the place you are staying for 10 days
• take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 and on or after day 8

You may be able to end quarantine early if you pay for a private COVID-19 test through the Test to Release scheme.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england

In short, Malaysians with full vaccination for at least 14 days with full course of Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer BioNTech can enter UK without quarantine. However, you need to book and pay for a day 2 COVID-19 test taken after arrival in England.

Traveler also do NOT required to take pre-departure test or take a day 8 COVID-19 test in UK. You must prove that you have been fully vaccinated for 14 days with digital cert or else you will be denied boarding.

The interesting part now is Sinovac vaccine is not mentioned in the website and I took the Sinovac vaccine some time ago. This means, I can’t travel to UK even fully vaccinated with Sinovac vaccine? Will wait for future update from the UK website in the future.

This is a positive move from the UK government and we do hope many other countries will follow especially Australia or New Zealand. The vaccine passport seems to be the new norm but we felt that it should include all COVID-19 vaccines under WHO or not selective COVID-19 vaccines.

Fully vaccinated Malaysians travel to UK without Quarantine next month for students who planning to study there as well as travelers meeting their family members as well as business travelers. Is this vaccine passport the new norm for International travelers? Looks like it will be the only way to travel in the short term future for now.

Please do take note of the risks of traveling during these times. We wanted to travel to UK for holiday but after checking our bank account, we decided to stay at home. Take care and be safe everyone.