BUG BOOM
UK Covid cases highest in almost five months with 16,703 infections recorded as foreign travel green list revealed
COVID cases in the UK hit the highest level in almost five months today as another 16,703 infections were recorded.
The new tally came as Brits hoping to go abroad this summer were given fresh hope as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tonight revealed new additions to the green list.
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Today's rise in Covid infections is the highest number of daily cases in almost five months since February 6 when 18,262 were reported.
The figure is also higher than yesterday's tally of 16,135 as the Delta variant continues to grip the UK.
The number of cases has risen by 44 per cent in a week after 10,730 cases were recorded last Thursday, along with nine deaths.
It means more than 85,000 new infections have been recorded across the nation in the last seven days.
The total number of cases since the pandemic began last year now stands at 4,684,572.
Deaths also rose by 21 in the latest 24-hour period - bringing the total to 128,048 - which is higher than yesterday's 19 fatalities.
And 204 people with Covid have been admitted to hospital during the same period, while the latest data shows 246 patients are on ventilators.
It brings the total number of people in hospital with Covid to 1,533, compared to 1,319 last Thursday.
Meanwhile, a total of 75,564,430 vaccinations in the UK have been administered with 31,908,103 people receiving two doses.
BIG HOLIDAY ANNOUNCEMENT
Grant Shapps tonight added a host of new additions to the green list, including Malta, Madeira, and Balearic Islands.
All 16 green list additions except Malta are on a "watch list" which means they could revert to amber.
But it means from next Wednesday at 4am, passengers will be able jet off from England to the Balearics without hunkering down at home on return.
It opens up holidays to immensely popular Balearic islands including Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formenta.
And stunning Caribbean hotspots like Grenada, Barbados, Bermuda and Antigua - but Jamaica and the Dominican Republic misses out.
Mr Shapps said tonight: "We’re moving forward with efforts to safely reopen international travel this summer, and thanks to the success of our vaccination programme, we're now able to consider removing the quarantine period for fully vaccinated UK arrivals from amber countries – showing a real sign of progress.
"It’s right that we continue with this cautious approach, to protect public health and the vaccine rollout as our top priority, while ensuring that our route out of the international travel restrictions is sustainable."
And in more good news, The Sun can reveal family holidays abroad could cost £500 less under plans to slash the number of expensive tests faced by double-jabbed Brits on their return.
Instead of up to three, they may need just one.
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Speaking today, the PM said there's a "real opportunity" to reopen favourite destinations to sun seekers thanks to the UK's stellar vaccine rollout.
"I think that the real opportunity we all have now is to open up travel through the double jab," Boris said.
"If you look at it we've got more than 60 per cent of our population have now had two jabs and 83 per cent of that one jab.
"We're really getting through it now. The crucial thing is come forward and get your second jab.
"I'm not going to claim that this summer for travel purposes is going to be like any other summer.
"I don't want to cook cast a pall over things, but it will be different."
Shapps and Chancellor Rishi Sunak want to open up travel again from the July 19 Freedom Day.
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Today's update comes as Angela Merkel lobbies European countries to shut their frontiers to the UK to stop the spread of the Indian variant.
Merkel raged: "In our country if you come from Great Britain you have to go into quarantine.
"That’s not the case in every European country and that’s what I’d like to see."
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Germany has an inferior jabs roll-out and higher daily death rate, while 60 per cent of Brits are double jabbed.
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The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has said the Delta variant is already taking hold on the continent.
It predicts that by the end of August a massive 90 per cent of new cases across bloc will be down to the new strain.
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