Health News at Your Fingertips

Asked about the safety of people gathering for large-scale events, Professor Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol and a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told Sky News:

If there is a lot of virus around and larger numbers of cases, then putting a lot of people in one place will certainly result in others acquiring the infection, so it’s a very context-specific thing, and, right at this moment in time, we’re seeing rapid rises in the number of cases in the UK because of this more infectious variant, so I think it should be a time for caution.

Specifically on the British Grand Prix next month, he said he thinks “it would be a good idea to try and limit the degree of crowding and particularly how closely people sit together who wouldn’t normally be in contact with each other”.

He said:

We have what happened in the beginning of the pandemic, where large numbers of people went to race meetings and Cheltenham so on and, as a result, lots of people got infected and died.

Asked whether he agrees with former chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, who said people who have had two vaccinations should continue to be careful, Finn said:

Yes. Vaccines are very important for this, they definitely reduce your risk of both infection and passing it on but they don’t eliminate it entirely.

The safety of putting people together who have been vaccinated is greater than people who are unvaccinated, but if there’s a lot of virus circulating there will still be infections taking place.

As of June 21, there have been 117 deaths in England of people who were confirmed as having the Delta variant and who died within 28 days of a positive test.

Of this number, eight were under the age of 50 and 109 were over 50, PA news reports.

Of the 109 over 50, 38 were unvaccinated, one was within 21 days of a first dose of vaccine, 17 more than 21 days after one dose of vaccine and 50 had received both doses.

Of the eight under 50, two were more than 21 days after a first dose of vaccine and six were unvaccinated.

Labour said the government needs to answer whether the Health Secretary had broken any rules or there had been “conflicts of interest” in the appointment of his closest adviser, PA news reports.

It follows reports that Matt Hancock has been having a relationship with a senior aide whom he first met when they were at Oxford University.

An opposition party spokesman said:

Ministers, like everyone, are entitled to a private life.

However, when taxpayers’ money is involved or jobs are being offered to close friends who are in a personal relationship with a minister, then that needs to be looked into.

The government needs to be open and transparent about whether there are any conflicts of interests or rules that have been broken.

A total of 111,157 confirmed and probable cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant have now been identified in the UK, Public Health England said.

This is up by 35,204, or 46%, on the previous week.

Of the 111,157, 102,019 have been in England, 7,738 in Scotland, 788 in Wales and 612 in Northern Ireland.

The most recent data shows that approximately 95% of confirmed cases of coronavirus across the UK are the Delta variant, PA news reports.

A total of 1,320 people have been admitted to hospital in England with the Delta variant as of June 21, a rise of 514 on the previous week, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

Some 902 of the 1,320 people were under the age of 50 while 418 were over 50.

Of the 902 under 50, 695 (77%) were unvaccinated, 79 (9%) within 21 days of their first dose of vaccine, 85 (9%) more than 21 days after their first dose of vaccine and 27 (3%) were fully vaccinated.

Of the 418 over 50, 136 (33%) were unvaccinated, nine (2%) within 21 days of their first dose of vaccine, 104 (25%) more than 21 days after their first dose of vaccine and 163 (39%) were fully vaccinated.

Countries like Germany with a lower domestic vaccine rate are bound to be “more concerned” about letting people in, compared to nations such as Malta, the transport secretary has suggested.

Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast:

I think it is understandable if you are in Germany – I heard what the chancellor [Angela Merkel] said yesterday – and you have yet to reach the level of vaccination that we have seen here or in Malta, that you’re going to be more concerned.

That may be just a question of waiting for their vaccination programme.

I think different countries in Europe will take different views and, yes, I’m talking to my counterparts in different locations – Malta we know are keen to accept British tourists, Spain because we’ve got the Balearics. We’ll see what happens.

I suspect different European countries will come to different conclusions, depending on their own domestic rollout of the vaccination programme, and it is probably in most cases a question of being patient and waiting to see what happens with their domestic programmes.

The government’s approach to foreign travel rules is “all based on the scientific evidence”, the transport secretary has said.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Grant Shapps said the Joint Biosecurity Centre was tracking epidemiological data such as a country’s vaccination levels, their ability to track the genome sequencing of Covid-19, and how open they are with data.

He was asked about arguments that some destinations, such as some Greek islands and the US, should be added to the green list according to data.

Shapps said:

It’s all based on the scientific evidence”, adding that some islands often lack a genomic sequencing ability, while in the US the “picture is mixed”.

There’s no circumstance in which there is not a scientific basis and I encourage people to look at the way that the Joint Biosecurity Centre do this.

Good morning. Transport secretary Grant Shapps has warned anyone looking to travel abroad that the rules could change at short notice after Malta, Madeira and the Balearic, among others, were added to the UK’s green list.

But there was concern across the beleaguered travel sector, with one prominent figure accusing the government of being “overly cautious”.

Shapps said:

People will have to come to their own decisions … If people are in a situation where, from next week, they wanted to get away then these are the places where you can go for the purposes of holiday, of course, being aware of all the caveats about the risk of things changing because … that happens with quite a lot of regularity.

He also said international travel would not be returning to as it was before coronavirus but that he hoped the announcement of a green watchlist would give people holiday options.

The cabinet minister told Sky News:

It does mean there is a little bit of relief for the travel industry and for people who wish to get away.

It won’t be quite like it was in 2019 and the old days, but we are moving in a positive direction.

Pressed on whether he would book a holiday to Majorca, which is on the green watchlist, Shapps said:

I should just explain the green watchlist.It means they are on the green list, you can go and it is treated like a green list country, but we are just being completely open with the data that the scientists have given us in saying, there are one or two concerns, it might mean we have to perhaps respond quickly on there, so we’ve said it is the green watchlist in order that people can see exactly what we’re seeing.

I do have to say whoever is booking to go anywhere this summer at all, travel insurance, making sure your flights are changeable, making sure the accommodation is changeable – all those things are going to be very important in this particular year and I think people will need to weigh up whether that is going to work for them or not.

In other news, Matt Hancock has been accused of having an affair with an adviser to his department.

The Sun published pictures of the married cabinet minister appearing to kiss Gina Coladangelo, who the newspaper said was hired by Hancock last year.

The images, which appear to be captured from CCTV footage, were taken on 6 May from the headquarters of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the newspaper has said.

I’m Nicola Slawson and I’ll be leading the liveblog today. I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. Alternatively, you can email me at nicola.slawson@theguardian.com or on Twitter, I’m on @Nicola_Slawson.