Ask a Covid data expert live about which countries could ban UK travellers due to infection rates

Ask expert Tim White about how the travel situation might change for the UK in coming weeks

Post Office branches have experienced a jump in currency sales ahead of the half-term school holidays (Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Archive)

The government is expected to make a further announcement by the end of this week regarding travel restrictions.

It is expected to be a less substantial update because the UK has only seven countries left on our red list, the only remaining part of what was the traffic light system we would bound by when travelling abroad.

The update comes towards the end of the half-term break, but with the rate of Covid infections rising in the UK, it is unlikely any relaxing will feature as a part of the government’s update.

Last week the high Covid infection rates in the UK triggered a travel ban by Morocco. Direct flights between the two countries will be suspended from Wednesday.

The Foreign Office is telling travellers: “The Moroccan government has announced the suspension for an unspecified period of direct flights between Morocco and the UK (and Germany and the Netherlands) with effect from midnight 20 October.”

There’s understandable concern among travellers that other countries could start banning the UK, like Morocco, too.

And most importantly what does this mean for any of us hoping to go abroad in coming weeks and months?

Tim White, the Covid data analyst who tweets as @TWMCLtd, has trawled through the genomic sequencing records held by Gisaid, the worldwide database, with a focus on variants of concern.

He will be on hand to answer all your latest travel questions around the upcoming announcement and what might happen next to travel arrangements during a live ‘ask me anything’ event being held on this page on 27 October.

Join Tim at 4pm on 27 October, when he’ll be on hand to answer your travel questions about all the latest rules and restrictions live.

Register to submit your question in the comments box below. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments section to leave your question.

Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until Tim joins the conversation to answer them.

Then join us live on this page from 4-5pm, as he tackles as many questions as he can within an hour.