The Madeira archipelago, the Balearic Islands and some of the Caribbean, including Barbados, will be added to the 'green list' of international travel and quarantine-free on arrival in England.

The changes, which also include several UK overseas territories, will take effect as early as Wednesday, Transport Minister Grant Shapps revealed.

In the note, the head of the Madeiran executive of the PSD/CDS-PP coalition “thanks the contribution of all Madeirans and Porto-Santenses for the great victory that the region has just achieved by seeing the United Kingdom recognise the justice of its arguments and their diligent efforts, putting Madeira on their 'green list'”.

The Madeiran social-democrat leader emphasises that British tourists and those from Northern Ireland, who have also put Madeira back on their 'green list', “thus have an open path to visit Madeira without having to go back to their homeland and undertake mandatory quarantine”.

In the statement, Miguel Albuquerque also reinforces that "justice was done" and praises "civic responsibility, the effort of all [Madeira and Porto Santo] and compliance with the rules and prophylactic procedures decreed by the Regional Government that allowed the return" to a list from where Madeira “should not have left”.

The government official also reiterates the appeal for Madeirans to “continue to scrupulously comply with the sanitary norms and the announced rules”, arguing that this is “crucial for Madeira to continue to present a controlled situation” of the covid-19 pandemic.

The 'green list' is currently limited to 11 low-risk countries and territories, but the British travel and tourism industry has been pushing to expand to include popular summer holiday destinations such as Greece, Italy or Spain.

Portugal was the only European Union (EU) country to join this list, on May 17, but was demoted less than three weeks later, on June 6, to the “amber list”, of moderate risk.