Green list: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Azores added

Seven more countries go green

Switzerland is one of seven new nations on the green list (Zermatt Tourismus/Pascal Gertschen)

Canada, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Azores have all been added to the green list in the government’s latest update to the traffic light system for international travel.

The move will mean that all arrivals from these destinations can avoid quarantine on entry to the UK, regardless of vaccination status.

Instead, they must take one Covid PCR test within two days of arriving, in addition to presenting a negative lateral flow prior to departure to the UK.

The changes will come into effect at 4am on 30 August.

It remains to be confirmed whether the same changes will be adopted by Wales and Northern Ireland, but Scotland has already announced it will mirror England’s changes.

All classification changes have been “decided by ministers, informed by the latest data and analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) and wider public health considerations, to help the public understand the risks to UK public health from incoming travel from different destinations,” according to a statement released by the Department for Transport (DfT).

While there is relief that key destinations, including some Caribbean islands and Morocco, have escaped the “red list,” airlines and holiday companies are dismayed that restrictions have not been eased more widely.

Within minutes, travel industry leaders attacked the limited easing of rules.

Sean Doyle, chairman and chief executive of British Airways, said: “Despite our world-leading vaccination programme the UK’s economic recovery remains far behind our more pragmatic European neighbours, which are already reaping the rewards of a rapid recovery.

“We have a much more costly, prohibitive and restrictive testing regime than everyone else. We also need to urgently end the uncertainty caused by the constant threat of changes to countries’ traffic light status. Our ‘green’ list is much smaller than that of the US and EU, despite no new variants being transported into the UK.”