Major changes to the rules on international travel are set to come into force tomorrow.
From 4am tomorrow (Monday, October 11) a huge 47 countries will be cut from the red list, with just seven countries and territories remaining on it.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced the travel update on Twitter on Thursday.
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He wrote: "From Monday (11th Oct) Calendar I’ll be cutting 47 destinations from our red list – including South Africa, with just 7 countries and territories remaining all others will be included in the “rest of world” category.
"I'm also making changes so travellers visiting England have fewer entry requirements, by recognising those with fully-vax status from 37 new countries and territories including India, Turkey and Ghana, treating them the same as UK fully vax passengers.
"The measures announced today mark the next step as we continue to open up travel and provide stability for passengers Luggage and industry while remaining on track to keep travel open for good."
South Africa, Mexico and Brazil all removed from the list, reports the Mirror.
Thailand has also been removed from the red list as has Indonesia, including tourist destination islands like Bali.
It means Brits returning from those countries will no longer have to have to isolate in a hotel for 11 nights at a cost of £2,285.
And those countries' residents and nationals will finally be allowed to visit the UK again after months of a total ban.
The only seven countries that now remain on the red list are Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela.
A wider overhaul of UK travel rules came into force last week, with the amber and green lists being scrapped in favour of just two lists - the red list and 'rest of the world'.
Travel from red list countries is banned unless people have residence or nationality rights in the UK, in which case they can come but must stay in a quarantine hotel.
For people coming from the rest of the world to the UK, there are two sets of rules depending on vaccination status.
Children and fully-vaccinated adults arriving from the rest of the world now only have to take one test - a ‘Day 2’ PCR test after landing. There’s no need to isolate, and no need to take a “pre-departure” test before flying.
The Day 2 test will also be replaced with a cheaper lateral flow later this month, of which passengers will simply able to send a photo to the authorities.
Unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated arrivals from the rest of the world must take three tests - a pre-departure test, plus a ‘Day 2’ and ‘Day 8’ PCR test after landing.
They must also isolate for 10 days at home or wherever they’re staying, unless they pay for a fourth ‘test to release’ test to leave isolation early. This is stricter than the previous system, where self-isolation wasn’t necessary for green list countries.
All arrivals - vaccinated or not - will still need to fill in a Passenger Locator Form ahead of travel.
Currently another country's vaccine programme has to be formally recognised by the UK authorities for someone to be classed as double-vaccinated.
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