However, popular European summer destinations  – such as France, Greece, Italy and Spain – are unlikely to be added to the green-list until late July or even August given their infection rate and case numbers.

Fiji, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, Finland and Malta were also among the nations are also expected to be included in the upcoming review.

The green list is to be reviewed on the week commencing 7 June, and then again three weeks after, with the government expected to add a number of destinations.

The countries that could be added to the list are thought to be “near-misses” from the green list published last week, in which Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced 12 countries deemed safe to travel.

Passengers returning from green list destinations will need to take a pre-departure test as well as a PCR test on or before day two of their arrival back into England, but will not need to quarantine unless the result is positive.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted the government was taking a “cautious approach” to easing travel restrictions, to protect the progress made by the vaccination rollout.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “We have some degree of confidence that the vaccine works effectively against the so-called Indian variant, and then against the South African variant we are a little bit more worried, but we don’t have full data on those yet.

“These are reasons to take a cautious approach at the borders in order to protect the progress that we have made at home.

“People would be loath to see us put that at risk by going too fast at the borders. But on the other hand we are seeing countries get this virus under control in the same way we appear to be able to get it under control.”