Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has given backing to regional ‘travel corridors’, axing country-wide quarantine rules in favour of more localised restrictions. As part of the new rules, seven Greek islands will be dropped from the UK's 'travel corridor' list. Further details are yet to be announced.

The shift will allow quarantine-free travel to be extended to a country’s islands, if infection rates on the mainland remain high.

This is heartening news for islands where cases are low, at odds with statistics from the mainland.

The UK government currently has an ‘all or nothing’ approach, applying identical quarantine rules to all areas of a country – regardless of whether all of its territories are experiencing the same rates of infection. The rules have become more complicated in recent days, as England, Wales and Scotland have divided in their quarantine approach to Greece and its islands.

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