UK is removing all 11 countries that are on its Covid-19 travel red list from Wednesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said in the parliament.

"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," he said.

South Africa and nine other countries in Africa were placed on UK’s red list in November. Nigeria was the latest addition to the list last week. Travellers returning to UK from those countries were required to undergo quarantine in designated hotels for 10 days to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus.