By A Correspondent- The United Kingdom (UK) has removed all 11 African countries from its red list, which severely restricted travel between those states and the UK.
Under the measures which were imposed last month, only British or Irish nationals or those with residency in the UK could re-enter the country.
The UK imposed the draconian measures to slow down the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant that was first detected in South Africa and Botswana.
The restrictions will be lifted at 6 AM (Central African Time) on Wednesday (tomorrow). Speaking in Parliament, UK Health Minster Sajid Javid said:
Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the country the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad.
Whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4 AM (GMT) tomorrow morning.
The 11 countries are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe.