The travel industry was dealt a hammer blow on Thursday as Portugal, the only mainstream holiday country on the greren list, was downgraded to amber.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps cited fears over “a mutation of the Delta variant”, the virus mutation wreaking havoc in India, for plunging Portugal into the amber category, joining most of Europe. The mutation is linked to Nepal.

The decision was made by the government after an “almost doubling” in the country’s coronavirus positive test rate and the discovery of 68 cases of the Indian variant, including some with a mutation previously seen in Nepal.

Mr Shapps said: “I want to be straight with people, it’s actually a difficult decision to make, but in the end we’ve seen two things really which caused concern.

“One is the positivity rate has nearly doubled since the last review in Portugal and the other is there’s a sort of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant which has been detected and we just don’t know the potential for that to be vaccine-defeating mutation and simply don’t want to take the risk as we come up to 21 June and the review of the fourth stage of the unlock.”

Holidaymakers in the Atlantic nation now face a scramble home before the 8 June deadline.

No other countries joined the green list, while seven were added to the red list.

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