UK Covid LIVE: Hopes raised France will go back on amber list as holidaymakers begin great getaway

Hopes have been raised that France could be put back on the amber list that would allow people to avoid quarantine on their return to the UK.

The country was placed on an “amber-plus” list which banned quarantine-free travel last week, over concerns about the growing number of cases of the Beta variant.

However Environment Secretary George Eustice told LBC on Friday morning that as rates come down “...obviously the evidence will change and it can be reviewed and we will want to be putting countries like France back onto the amber list in the normal way.”

It comes as an estimated 400,000 people in the UK prepare to head abroad on holiday this weekend in the first mass getaway since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, daily testing is beginning for food supply workers who are ‘pinged’ to avoid the need to self-isolate if identified as a contact of a coronavirus case.

Thousands of workers at up to 500 critical sites will potentially be eligible for the tests being rolled out under a government plan to keep supermarket shelves stocked.