All remaining Covid travel restrictions are to be dropped in the UK later this week despite a rise in cases and hospitalisations.
The changes that will come into force on Friday will mean the scrapping of passenger locator forms and the requirement for all unvaccinated arrivals to get tested.
Quarantine hotels that have not been used since the red list of countries was emptied in December but have been kept on standby, will be fully stood down from the end of March.
Tory MPs and the aviation industry had put pressure on the government to make the move before April, since all domestic restrictions have already been repealed.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said on Monday it would mean greater freedom for travellers ahead of the Easter holidays. The decision will be welcomed by the travel industry. On Monday, Heathrow announced that passengers travelling through the airport will no longer be required to wear a mask from Wednesday. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic said they are preparing to drop the requirement onboard when flying to destinations that do not require face coverings on planes.
Heathrow said it would continue to encourage people to wear masks at the airport, in recognition that the pandemic was not over, but it would no longer be a firm requirement, similar to the practice around UK transport.
BA and Virgin said the rules would depend on destinations with masks required on many routes, including to the US until at least 18 April. There will be optional mask-wearing on all of the Virgin flights to the Caribbean from both Heathrow and Manchester.
It came as Britain's Covid situation deteriorated further, with health officials concerned that the number of people being hospitalised with the disease was also growing at a fast rate.
The 444,201 positive cases have increased by 48.1% over the past week. As of 8 am on 14 March 19%, the number of patients admitted to hospital has gone up as of 8 am on 14 March 19%, a rise from the previous week for 10,576 in England.
Boris Johnson spokesman said there was no need for any new restrictions to help curb the spread of the disease.
He said the prime minister was keeping a close eye on the data but that at the moment we don't see any pressures we saw when such large proportions of the population were not vaccinated or boosted. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the UK was in a good position given the take-up of vaccines, and that a rise in infection rates was to be expected.
In a bid to appease those concerned about the dropping of border measures, he pledged: We will continue monitoring and tracking potential new variants, and keep a reserve of measures that can be deployed quickly if needed to keep us safe. The Department for Transport said that the default approach will be to use the least stringent measures and that contingency measures will only be implemented in extreme circumstances. Johnson loosened Covid restrictions, announcing that those with the virus would no longer be required to isolate and that free mass testing would end on 1 April.
Self-isolation support payments were also jettisoned, while sick pay rules reverted to less generous pre-pandemic arrangements.