Accurate as of: 5 August 2020
Current UK status:
Visit www.gov.uk/coronavirus for all official information.
- As of 9am on 4 August 2020, a total of 12,407,146 people have been tested for coronavirus (COVID-19), of which 306,293 were confirmed positive.
- 46,299 patients in the UK who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.
- The UK government has delayed easing further lockdown restrictions, following a spike in coronavirus cases in parts of Greater Manchester, East Lancashire, and West Yorkshire. Local lockdown restrictions have been enforced – preventing visiting other homes or gardens and socialising in indoor venues with people one does not live with.
- Lockdown restrictions are being reimposed in Aberdeen due to a coronavirus cluster in the city; pubs and restaurants will have to close from 1700 on Wednesday.
- The self-isolation period has been extended from 7 days to 10 days for those who have COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result.
- The UK launched the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme on Monday 3 August, where diners will receive up to 50% off bills at selected participating restaurants and cafes throughout August – aiming to protect jobs in the hospitality sector.
UK travel restrictions:
Visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/foreign-commonwealth-office for all official information.
- As countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including travel and border restrictions, the FCO advises British nationals against all but essential international travel.
- A 14-day mandatory quarantine for all UK arrivals except for those announced as exempt. See here for the full list of exempt countries. Countries can be added or removed from this list at any time. For example, on Saturday 25 July, Spain was removed from the list due to its increasing number of cases.
- FCO travel advice includes information on any health measures in place for visitors to a country or territory. These can include a requirement to self-isolate, quarantine or undergo testing for coronavirus, or even restrictions on entry.
Latest updates:
- The FCO has extended the 14-day quarantine period for anyone travelling to the UK from Spain, to include the Balearic and Canary Islands. (Express)
- The Australian state of Victoria has declared a state of disaster and imposed new lockdown measures after a surge in coronavirus infections (BBC)
- Virgin Atlantic warns it will run out of money by September if creditors do not approve a £1.2 billion bailout deal (Travel Weekly)
- Disney’s parks, experiences and products division – which includes its cruise operation – has posted a massive quarterly loss running to $2 billion (TTG)
- Half of Brits would skip their holiday if they had to take a Covid test (Reuters)
- Travel demand is higher than expected and UK quarantine restrictions on arrivals from Spain have not hit demand as much as feared, according to EasyJet chief John Lundgren (Travel Weekly)
- Guests and crew on a North Sea cruise ship are now in quarantine, after a passenger tested positive for Covid-19 – the second cruises line to discover cases of COVID-19 onboard (Telegraph)
- easyJet adds more flights to summer schedule due to an unexpected rise in demand (Mirror)
- A new UK initiative is bringing together travel deals for frontline NHS staff – back by industry bodies including VisitBritain, UKinbound, and the London Tourism Cooperative (Guardian)
- Travel brands will need to rethink consumer trust and loyalty schemes, as customers won’t have been using loyalty points for almost 6 months (Skift)
- Has the pandemic killed freebies and press trips for influencers? (Skift)
- UK advertisers pulled more than £1.1bn spend during Covid lockdown (Guardian)
- Abta LifeLine has struck up a new partnership to help travel professionals, whose careers have been hit by the coronavirus crisis, transition into other sectors. (TTG)
- Coronavirus: Hays Travel to cut up to 878 jobs as pressure on tourism sector increases (Sky)
Social media:
- Facebook has launched a new update for its Messenger chat plug-in for websites, which enables businesses to prompt direct message conversations with visitors to their site via a pop-up chat window. (Social Media Today)
- Microsoft has confirmed it is still pursuing talks to buy the social app TikTok, following reports that Donald Trump has threatened to ban the app in the US (Independent)
- UK Consumers are being warned about a surge of ‘too good to be true’ holiday deals being advertised on Instagram (iNews)
- Snapchat and Instagram add music options to videos to rival TikTok (Reuters and The Sun)
