Turkey may remain on the U.K.’s ‘red list’ for travel after cases of COVID-19 more than tripled over the past three weeks, the Daily Express reported on Monday.
The country’s daily coronavirus cases have risen to the highest levels since early May after the government relaxed a lockdown on the population and Turks swamped tourist resorts during a week-long religious holiday last week. It reported 16,809 new cases on Monday.
The U.K. government is reviewing its so-called traffic light system for travel destinations every three weeks, meaning the next assessment may be published on Wednesday or Thursday of next week, the Daily Express said.
Turkey is seeking to attract tourists back to the country to help boost economic growth and to finance its current account deficit, which stands at more than 4 percent of GDP.
It is still possible that Turkey could be upgraded to an ‘amber’ country because an original downgrade occurred due to the outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus, which has now become the U.K.’s most dominant strain, the newspaper said.
The reasoning behind the government’s traffic light allocations is dependent on several factors, and some decisions have been surprising, according to the Daily Express.
Ahval