People arriving in the UK from the Canary Islands will need to self-isolate for two weeks following a decision to remove the destination from the travel safe list.

The new rules will come into effect from 04:00 tomorrow morning.

The decision to remove the top holiday spot from the list of travel corridors was been based on a sharp increase in test positivity, currently at 7.1 per cent for the Canaries collectively and 8.8 per cent for the island of Tenerife.

The Canary Islands were only added to the travel safe list in October.

However, from December 15th, passengers arriving in England from countries not featured on the travel corridor list – including the Canary Islands – will have the option to take a test from a private provider after five days of self-isolation.

If they return a negative result, they will be released from the need to self-isolate.

Also today, Saudi Arabia and Botswana have been added to the travel corridor list following in-depth analysis of the coronavirus epidemic in these countries.

From tomorrow, passengers arriving to England from these destinations will no longer need to self-isolate so long as they have not been in or transited through any other non-exempt countries in the 14-days preceding their arrival.

People currently in the Canary Islands are encouraged to follow the local rules and check FCDO travel advice for further information.

The government is urging employers to be understanding of those returning from these destinations who now will need to self-isolate.