All arrivals from France, regardless of their vaccination status, have had to quarantine for 10 days since the government suddenly created the so-called amber plus category on 16 July.

But the UK government has now announced that arrivals from France to England will no longer have to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

“The step aligns France with the rest of the amber list now that the proportion of Beta variant cases has fallen, where those who are fully vaccinated with a vaccine authorised and administered in the UK, US or Europe do not need to quarantine when arriving in England,” said the Department for Transport in a statement.

“This move also simplifies the system to three categories, as well as the green watchlist, to give travellers notice where green status is at risk.”

The move came as the UK government announced its latest review of the traffic light system and changes to the countries on the green, amber and red lists.

The UK government faced criticism after foreign secretary Dominic Raab admitted the decision on France had been made due to the high number of Beta cases on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. In Wednesday’s update, Reunion was moved to the red list due to “the risk of high prevalence of the Beta variant”.

Although transport secretary Grant Shapps later defended the France move when he stressed there were also cases of the Beta variant in northern France.

All changes will come into effect at 4am on Sunday (8 August) in England.