Add Bulgaria to list of countries you can visit without quarantine upon return.

The list of countries you can visit this summer without quarantining when you return to the UK has been published, but does not include Bulgaria. It should be added to the list, as it has low infection rates and many people want to go back this summer to see family.

It is important for the government to do this so that British citizens returning from Bulgaria can get back to work as soon as possible without having to quarantine for two weeks. Taking away quarantine for people returning from Bulgaria should not be a problem, as Covid infection rates there have been low - even lower than a lot of the countries which are included on the list. Many people book holidays or go to see family in Bulgaria, so this is not an unreasonable ask.

The Government keeps the countries and territories from which international arrivals are required to self-isolate under constant review. We have been clear that we will open up Travel Corridors to countries, territories and islands when there is a sustained improvement under the UK’s methodology.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) and Public Health England (PHE) monitor over 250 countries, territories and islands daily to inform these risk assessments. Factors taken into consideration include:

• An estimate of the proportion of the population that is currently infected (this is known as ‘point prevalence’);

• Weekly case incidence rate taking into account population size of the country, territory or island;

• Trends in incidence, deaths, hospitalisations and intensive care admissions;

• Information on laboratory capacity, testing and contact tracing strategies, and test positivity rates;

• COVID-19 cases detected in the UK following travel to the country, territory or island (‘imported infections’);

• Qualitative information related to the reliability of reported data and the maturity of public health systems; and

• Public health measures in place and the enforcement of, and adherence to, those measures.

The latest JBC risk assessment indicates that the risks to the UK public health from travellers returning from Bulgaria remains unacceptably high. Decisions on international Travel Corridors are reviewed weekly. We will bring Bulgaria onto the travel corridor list as soon as it is safe to do so.