US and EU vaccinated travellers will no longer have to quarantine when arriving in Britain.
The new order will come into force starting from next week.
The UK government defended the change as it will help to reunite family and friends whose loved ones live abroad.
However, the travellers will still need to take a Covid test pre-departure and a PCR test on the second day after they arrive.
UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said via Twitter, “We’re helping reunite people living in the US and European countries with their family and friends in the UK.”
“From August 2 at 4 am, people from these countries will be able to come to England from an amber country without having to quarantine if they’re fully vaccinated.”
Travel consultancy boss Paul Charles has welcomed the decision to “pump vital cash” into the economy.
“It’s excellent news for our airlines who need to fill their seats across the Atlantic,” he said.
“The news will encourage millions of extra visitors into the UK at a time when the sector badly needs them.”
The measure comes after the UK government on July 19 also removed quarantine requirements for fully-vaccinated English residents if they had visited so-called “amber list” countries with less severe Covid-19 situations.
This came as Britain declared a plan to ease the coronavirus restrictions further.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the final stage of the four-step plan out of lockdown.
“Thanks to the successful rollout of our vaccination programme, we are progressing cautiously through our roadmap,” Johnson said.
“Today, we will set out how we can restore people’s freedoms when we reach step 4.
“But I must stress that the pandemic is not over and that cases will continue to rise over the coming weeks. As we begin to learn to live with this virus, we must all continue to carefully manage the risks from COVID and exercise judgement when going about our lives.”
Step four will mean removing mask-wearing rules, the end of social distancing and the return of large-scale events.
The UK has been under the spotlight given rising numbers of new coronavirus cases with the Delta variant.
Many countries have restricted travel from the UK because of the spread of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Travellers from Britain are now required to show proof of their vaccination. For those who have not been vaccinated, they must produce a negative RT PCR test report.
The variant is more transmissible than others and was first identified in India, but it has spread rapidly in the UK.
