Travelers will still need a negative coronavirus test before entering the country.
Fully vaccinated travelers from the United States and most of the European Union will be allowed to enter England and Scotland without quarantining upon arrival starting Aug. 2, the British authorities said on Wednesday, as they sought to attract tourists after months of restrictions.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that he wanted Americans to travel to England “freely.” The Scottish government quickly followed London’s lead. Last week, the British government relaxed all but a handful of restrictions in England despite a major surge in infections. Cases have since declined, surprising experts and government officials who had expected them to keep rising.
On Twitter, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, wrote, “We’re helping reunite people living in the U.S. and European countries with their family and friends in U.K.”
As of Aug. 2, the rules will apply equally to travelers from the United States and most of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland if they have been vaccinated with shots authorized by either American or European drug regulators, Mr. Shapps said. The exception is travelers from France, who will still have to self-isolate for 10 days. He said travelers will need a negative coronavirus test before a trip and another upon arrival.
The government has been criticized for discriminating between travelers who were vaccinated in Britain and those inoculated elsewhere, without any medical justification. Vaccinated people arriving in England from most “amber list” countries, those with moderately high transmission, have been required to self-isolate — unless they received their shots in Britain.
Most European countries have opened to American tourists after the European Union recommended lifting a ban on nonessential travel last month. Yet E.U. and British residents are still mostly banned from traveling to the United States unless they are U.S. citizens.
The Biden administration said on Monday that it would continue to restrict the entry of Europeans and others into the United States, citing concerns that infected travelers may contribute to a further spread of the very contagious Delta variant. The State Department is advising American travelers not to go to Britain, Spain or Portugal, and to reconsider travel to other parts of Western Europe.
Few experts are willing to draw definitive conclusions from the overall decline in cases in Britain over the past week, which could reflect transient factors like the school summer break, the end of the European soccer championships or fewer tests being administered.
But if the trend is sustained, it raises a tantalizing prospect that Mr. Johnson may have bet correctly that the country could withstand a return to normalcy, even with the Delta variant circulating widely.
Mark Landler contributed reporting.
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