A dozen countries could be added to the quarantine-free travel list this week, according to an expert.
Germany, Italy and Bulgaria are among those with Covid data healthy enough to mean they could go green on Thursday when the list is due to be updated by ministers.
Other countries that could join them include Canada, Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to analysis by Robert Boyle, a former BA strategist. This would increase the total on the green list from 27 to 39.
Heathrow chief John Holland-Kaye said: ‘Ministers need to extend this policy to US and EU nationals if they want to kick-start the economy'
There is also speculation that the Balearics are at risk of going amber on Thursday because infection rates there have soared
Mr Boyle’s analysis assumes that countries with a new Covid case rate of or below 20 per 100,000 of the population will be added, along with a test positivity rate of 1.5 per cent and testing rate of one or more per 100,000.
As it stands, Israel, Gibraltar, Malta, the Portuguese island of Madeira and Spain’s Balearic Islands are the only viable holiday destinations on the green list, which is reviewed every three weeks.
Canada is considered one of the most likely to go green, according to the analysis, which has a rate of nine new cases per 100,000 over the past seven days.
This does not bode well for hotspots such as mainland Portugal, Greece and Spain, whose case rates are 183 per 100,000, 119 per 100,000 and 219 per 100,000 respectively.
Vaccination rates, prevalence of variants of concern and the ability to
