(Bloomberg) -- Holiday options for Britons seeking a slice of autumn sunshine after the year's earlier coronavirus lockdowns shrank further as Italy joined the U.K. quarantine roster.
Anyone arriving from the south European nation after 4 a.m. on Sunday must self-isolate for two weeks, as it has been removed from Britain's travel corridors list, the Department for Transport said in a statement Thursday.
The announcement will disrupt holiday plans for tens of thousands of people with bookings for Italian sunspots in the half-term school break at the end of this month, the last holiday period for many Britons before Christmas. It means that almost all Mediterranean destinations are now effectively off limits.
Italy, Europe's original epicenter for the virus, has seen a resurgence in Covid-19 infections, with its daily tally reaching 7,332 Wednesday, higher than the 6,557 at the earlier peak of the pandemic on March 21. That's still less severe than in France and in Spain, which have been subject to U.K. quarantine orders for weeks.
The latest U.K. measures, which also apply to people visiting San Marino and the Vatican, were flagged earlier in a tweet from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who warned: “If you arrive from these destinations you will need to self-isolate.”
Read More: Italy Posts Record Virus Cases as Europe Struggles With Pandemic
Shares in EasyJet Plc, Britain's biggest discount airline, closed down 3.3% and continued their decline in early trading Friday. Rival Ryanair Holdings Plc fell 4.3% and TUI AG, Europe's biggest tour operator, lost 2.5%.
In more positive news, the island of Crete was added to the travel bubble list, joining most of the rest of Greece, after being assessed as posing a lower infection risk by Britain's Joint Biosecurity Centre.
Among other warm-weather destinations requiring a short-haul flight, only Cyprus and Gibraltar come with no British quarantine requirement for returning travelers. Elsewhere in Europe, Ireland, Germany and most of Scandinavia are also exempt, though unlikely to lure sun-seekers as the weather worsens and nights grow longer.
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