All of Greece apart from Corfu, Crete, Rhodes Zakynthos and Kos have been removed from the quarantine exempt list for arrivals from 4am Saturday 14 November.

It comes as data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England has indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases of coronavirus in mainland Greece.

Over the past two weeks there has been a 136% increase in newly reported cases to 16,429 between 5 and 12 November from 6,965 between 22 and 29 October. But the Greek islands of Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos and Kos haven’t seen as significant a growth in cases over recent weeks as the rest of Greece and therefore remain on the travel corridors list.

Meanwhile United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Turks and Caicos Islands, Laos, Iceland, Cambodia, Chile, and Bahrain have been added to list of travel corridors for the UK.

From 4am on Saturday, passengers arriving into the UK from these destinations will no longer need to self-isolate as long as they haven’t been in or transited through any other non-exempt countries in the 14 days before arrival.

Further, the travel ban on Denmark has been extended for a further 14 days following the outbreak of coronavirus in mink farms.

However, due to the national restrictions introduced on 5 November, Brits must stay at home with only a few exceptions. This means people can no longer travel to take holidays or travel internationally unless for work or other legally permitted reasons.

Those in breach of the rules face penalties starting at £200 and rising to a maximum of £6,400.

All travellers, including those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show a complete passenger locator form on arrival into the UK unless they fall into a small group of exemptions.

Penalties for those breaching the self-isolation rules when returning from non-exempt countries have increased from £1,000 for first offences up to £10,000 for subsequent offences, mirroring penalties for those breaching self-isolation following a positive COVID test or contact from Test and Trace.