Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s warning came just hours after the Bahamas, Belgium and Andorra were effectively removed from the UK’s "safe travel" list on Thursday evening (6 August).
The Foreign Office is advising against all but essential travel to all three countries, while their respective quarantine-free travel corridors will be revoked as of 4am on Saturday (8 August).
It comes amid fears over France’s rising rate of coronavirus infection; revoking France’s travel corridor and advising against travel to the UK’s nearest continental neighbour would jeopardise hundreds of thousands of summer getaways, just weeks after Spain was placed on the UK’s tacit "no go" list.
Asked what the tens of thousands of holidaymakers currently in France, and those preparing to travel, should do, Sunak told Sky News it was a "tricky situation".
"What I can say to people is that we’re in the midst of a global pandemic, and that means there is always the risk of disruption to travel plans – people need to bear that in mind," he said.
"It’s the right thing for us to do to keep everything under review on a constant basis, talking with our scientists and medical advisers.
"And if we need to take action as you’ve seen overnight, we will of course not hesitate to do that and we’re doing that to protect people’s health."
