plus there are a massive number of policy concerns that any major corporation has to consider before poking the bear.

this latest extension may finally have made them say enough is enough, which frankly i more or less agree with wrt travel restrictions. i have always said i would imagine the govt to loosen restrictions once all 18+ were eligible for a jab and wow look at this leak.

but i frankly cannot see any significant reason for NOT loosening travel restrictions in a month when this last phase is set to expire--including the absurdity of testing on return. either require testing from red only, and green/amber (if only they force a much lower market cost) or like every other country--remove testing for vaccinated travelers on return.

the next travel review is next week, what will
happen there I wonder

Yeh that is true. According to Sky News today, Jesse Norman, the financial secretary to the Treasury said "It's (the Government) looking at all the options. We don't want to be left behind by other countries that are taking a two-jab approach if it can be done safely."

The legal challenge probably now makes sense that many more Britons are going to want to travel now that the EU is opening up.

I wonder if the government is thinking about making travel easier because of the legal challenge or the economic aspect and more Britons wanting to travel.

According to the Times, all over 18s in England will be called up (be able to book) for their jabs from tomorrow. This is fantastic news because if any adult can get their first jab next week, that means August we should be seeing close to 90% or above fully jabbed adults.

Yes especially now it will be mandatory for care home staff to be vaccinated too, will help us get to a high % fully jabbed.

yes for sure also if more ppl travel anyway it will overstretch the quarantine follow ups and make it unworkable, even more so if ppl see that vaccinated in other countries don’t quarantine and they are being forced to here, will make them less likely to follow the rules in the first place. Govt will come under increasing pressure as I am sure many ppl will travel abroad for the summer holidays, even if the government is trying its best to promote staycations

Daily data:

Cases 11,007 (7,393 last Thursday)
Deaths 19 (7)
Patients admitted 173 (153 on the 6th)
Patients in hospital 1,227 (1,048 on the 8th)
Patients in ventilation beds 208 (159 on the 9th)
People vaccinated up to and including 16 June 2021:
First dose: 42,216,654
Second dose: 30,675,207

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now up 33.7% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is up 41.8%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 11.1 today.

My D's flatmate got her text and goes in Sunday. That was the last of her friends/classmates, so her entire cohort will be half jabbed by end of week. I am breathing a small sigh of relief as the socializing has picked up rapidly.

Over 11,000 new cases reported today, the highest since mid-February. The 7-day rate per 100,000 is 75, one of the worst in Europe.

The demands that the UK government open up international travel may be becoming somewhat irrelevant, as at this rate no-one - other than a few countries willing to risk everything for the sake of tourist income - is going to let us in. If we want to travel again we have to get the number of cases down.

Perhaps the government feels it can open open Amber List travel to the fully vaccinated precisely because it knows no one will let us in?

I don't suppose we will hear the phrase 'we need to protect what we have achieved' form the PM/senior ministers in relation to travel for while at least.

Or double jabbed. If they don't then they may as well admit that the vaccines weren't the answer.

I'm one of the most vocal about travel being allowed, however, even I agree with this begrudgingly as it is true. I actually think we are now the second worst in Europe based on a rolling 7-day average.

"Freedom day" as the media term it I think on the 19th of July is looking less and less likely sadly. I just don't get it. How have we managed to stuff this up and we have one of, if not the highest percentage of people vaccinated in Europe.

Whilst the figures for cases do not look good, our daily deaths even at 19 as reported today are still very low compared with most other similar countries.

I'm not really seeing this. The underlying data isn't too bad, even Manchester has had a fall in today's raw data. The people getting Covid are ovewhelmingly unvaccinated and aged 16 to 24 years old. They will be getting their vaccines in the next week or two. The age profile in hospitals has fallen too. On the death rate it used to be the case that under 10% of deaths were in people under 60 years old, now it's about 40%. Which sounds alarming but that's on a very low death rate, and almost all fatalities are unvaccinated. It also indicates that mass fatalities isn't on the cards with Delta. The only thing that's gone wrong here is that it would have been better to get Delta arriving in the UK some months from now, but given the close relationship between the UK and India that would be unlikely a prospect.