Britain will remove all 11 countries from its COVID-19 travel red list from Wednesday because there is now community transmission of Omicron, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament.

The British government added the southern African countries to its red list in late November, meaning that entry was only allowed for UK citizens or residents who then must quarantine in a hotel, in a bid to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.

"Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad," Javid said.