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Portugal confirms UK tourists with negative COVID test allowed to travel from Monday

Portugal has confirmed that tourists from the UK will be able to travel to the country from Monday.

The country’s minister of foreign affairs said anyone arriving from 17 May must have had a negative PCR result within the previous 72 hours.

Existing travel restrictions on travel into the country from Britain will end on Sunday, the minister added.

It follows earlier uncertainty after the Portuguese government declared a “state of calamity”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Tuesday that as of 17 May the “stay in the UK” restriction will lift, meaning people will be able to travel to green list countries such as Portugal without self-isolating on their return.

The latest announcement will come as a relief for holiday firms which have reported huge demand for trips to Portugal following the publication of the green list.

EasyJet has added 105,000 extra seat to its flights serving green tier destinations, while Tui plans to use aircraft which normally operate long-haul routes to accommodate the surge of people booked to fly to there.

More on Covid-19

Thousands of British football fans are hoping to travel to Porto in mainland Portugal for the all-English Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea on 29 May.

Uefa previously confirmed that 6,000 tickets would be made available to each of the finalists, with the final capacity limit at the Estadio do Dragao still to be fixed.