Malta was bewildered after being left off the UK’s green travel list, especially following the success of its vaccine roll-out.

Also, the Mediterranean island has had relatively few cases of coronavirus, so it says it remains hopeful it will make it onto the green list in the next review on 7 June.

The tourist board said Malta should reach herd immunity against COVID this week, when more than 75% of its population of 500,000 will have had at least one dose of the vaccine.

By yesterday, more than 430,000 doses had been administered, and almost 148,000 people were fully vaccinated.      

Its vaccination programme has been so successful that it is already beginning to offer jabs to teenagers from 16-plus.

The island recorded just 128 active cases of COVID on Monday.

It is the first country to have been placed on Denmark’s amber travel list, while the rest of the world remains on the red list, and Germany has already said its citizens are free to holiday on the island.

But the UK has placed Malta on its amber list, along with much of the rest of Europe, which means holidaymakers must self-isolate for up to 10 days when they return home.

Malta Tourism Authority’s trade trainer for the UK & Ireland Peter Green said the island had been left in the dark about its omission from the green list.

“We were sure we would be on there and we’ve no idea why we weren’t, but we’re hopeful Malta will turn green on 7 June,” he said.

The island intends to allow British travellers who’ve been fully vaccinated test-free access from 1 June, while others will be welcome with a PCR test.