The UK Government announced on Tuesday that all 11 countries on its travel red list will be removed from the list on Wednesday because there is now community transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the UK.
The 11 countries - all in Africa - are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The red list was reintroduced in late November as a precaution after the emergence of the Omicron variant.
"Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad," Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament.
He said temporary testing measures for international travel will be maintained.
Up to Monday, there were 4,713 cases of the Omicron variant in the UK, the Health Secretary told Parliament.
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