Menorca moved to amber list
The Balearic Islands will be on the list from 4 am on Monday, July 19, just over a fortnight after they were moved onto the green watchlist.
The announcement applies to England, but the other UK nations, including the North of Ireland, are expected to follow suit.
From Monday, those not double-jabbed or under 18 have to quarantine on returning from an amber list country.
While the requirement to self-isolate is being scrapped for the fully vaccinated and under-18s from Monday in England, Scotland and Wales, travellers in the North of Ireland will have to wait another week before the rule change.
The British Virgin Islands are also moving to the amber list, while Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sierra Leone will be moved to the strictest red list.
Bulgaria and Hong Kong will move to the green list, while Croatia and Taiwan join the green watchlist, which means they are at risk of being moved to amber.
It is understood that data indicates a big rise in cases in the Balearic Islands following end-of-term parties.
In an interview with reporters, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said case rates had doubled since the islands were added to the green watchlist, which meant the government needed to “move quickly”.
He also warned that people travelling abroad this summer will need to make sure they can get their money back or rebook their accommodation, adding that “no-one can be out there thinking we can travel and just rely on things not changing”.
He defended the government’s traffic light system, saying that the categories mean “people can see, broadly-speaking, where these countries are classified”.
He added: “We’re not in control of this virus, particularly in how it affects other counties, their levels of vaccinations, their level of genomic sequencing, their testing regimes.”
Travelling to green list destinations was likely to be a “better bet” than those on the green watchlist, he said, but cautioned “there are no guarantees”.
He urged people to come forward and get both vaccine doses to give them “one more piece of security when you do go off to travel”.
The changes will come as bad news for travellers who are over 18 and not yet double vaccinated.
The government says they can still pay for additional tests on day five as part of test-to-release and are advising everyone to get their jabs as quickly as possible.
Under the change to amber list travel rules, announced last week, fully-jabbed people will still be required to take a test three days before they return and on the second day after they are back – but they will now be exempted from a day eight test.
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