Accurate as of: 11 November 2020
Current UK status:
Visit www.coronavirus.data.gov.uk for all official information.
- As of 6pm on 10 November 2020, a total of 34,158,037 people have been tested for coronavirus (COVID-19), of which 1,233,775 were confirmed positive.
- 49,770 patients in the UK who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.
- England remains under a national lockdown. The guidance is to stay at home, and all non-essential shops have closed. On 2 December, at the end of the period, the Government guidance will return to a regional lockdown approach, based on the latest data.
- Guidance for the current national lockdown can be found
UK travel restrictions:
Visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/foreign-commonwealth-office for all official information.
- The new lockdown guidance states that travel is not permitted, this includes both domestic and international travel, unless for business purposes.
Latest updates:
- Since the announcement of the coronavirus vaccine’s success rate on Monday, holiday companies have reported a surge in bookings for 2021 – with some experts urging customers to book early, before prices start to rise. The latest data from TravelSupermarket shows that the most popular months for travel in 2021 are currently April and May, after the vaccine is rumoured to be rolled-out – while Skyscanner is reporting a 48 per cent week-on-week spike in searches for the Easter holidays and beyond (Telegraph)
- The travel trade has hailed news of the world’s first effective coronavirus vaccine as a “game changer” for the sector’s recovery, but insisted airport testing must also take place (Travel Weekly)
- SkyTeam, Star Alliance and oneworld want governments around the world to adopt standardised testing protocols and embrace digital health pass technology to allow borders to reopen safely amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis (TTG)
- Norwegian has cut its route network to just a dozen domestic services and furloughed a further 1,600 staff after its fresh bid for financial support was turned down by Norway’s government (TTG)
- EasyJet is only planning to operate 20% of capacity during the final three months of 2020 due to lockdowns in the UK and other key markets (TTG)
- Grant Shapps told airport operators that a new “test and release scheme” will start once the latest shut-down is over to cut self-isolation from non-safe nations from 14 days to around seven (The Sun)
- New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed overseas travellers made just 398,000 trips to the UK in the second quarter of the year. This was down a staggering 96 per cent from the same period last year, and the ONS placed the blame for the decline squarely on the pandemic (Breaking Travel News)
- Matthew Upchurch, chairman and chief executive of US luxury agency Virtuoso, said the industry had “pivoted from the challenges of overtourism to the disaster of under-tourism” during Covid, which was affecting communities globally. Speaking on a WTM sustainable tourism panel, he said a total shutdown of tourism would mean “the worst environmental disaster in the history of the planet” because of the knock-on effects on communities, wildlife and the landscape (TTG)
- Scotland’s tourism and hospitality industries have been hit hardest amid the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 70% of firms in these sectors expecting to cut jobs by the year-end before the UK Government furlough scheme extension was announced (Herald Scotland)
- Students will be allowed to travel between 2-9 December under a “travel window” to manage pressure on transport and infrastructure over the festive period. The plans are designed to help deal with the “significant challenge” of the mass movement of students at the end of term as part the country’s coronavirus response (Evening Standard)
Social media:
- As parts of social’s general tendency towards the ephemeral, Twitter is expanding Fleets — their Stories-like function — to Japan. It’s already available in Brazil, India, South Korea, and Italy — where a Rooster had a chance to try it out to mixed reception during the summer.
- As Instagram combines Messenger and Instagram DMs, they’re trying out new ways for users to react to Stories without sending a DM. As you’ll notice, an emoji reaction to a Story creates a message in your DMs which can clutter larger inboxes. Facebook Stories show reactions in a separate UI element so Instagram might be looking to do the same.
- Facebook and its various brands continue to double down on ecommerce opportunities as soon as they’re presented to them and WhatsApp is no exception. WhatsApp’s new shopping button takes you through to a product listing inside the app, like Instagram and Facebook Shops. This is particularly important for India, where the app is especially prominent, as the government has just approved WhatsApp Pay.
- As the holidays approach, Pinterest is keen to help you make the most of the platform with their annual holiday gift guide. We keep talking about how great Pinterest is at brand resources and this one continues to prove that claim. The ‘visual discovery engine’ has also published a transparency report flagging what’s been removed and why in the first half of the year.
- Election difficulties continue as we await the Electoral College’s announcement so Twitter are experimenting with Like warnings for misinformation after their similar change to retweets.
- Celebrating Diwali? Embrace this year’s remote festival with some new Instagram Story AR filters ‘inspired by mandalas, diyas and festive colours.’
- As Canva continues to dominate social design — until you’re into Creative Cloud territory — Facebook’s adding new animation features to still images so they’re more attention-grabbing in the Feed.
- And, as is tradition, we’re ending on TikTok. According to mobile analytics company AppAnnie, TikTok is set to score over a billion average monthly active users in 2021. The billion-user club is pretty exclusive, with Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Instagram among its company in social. Worth noting which company owns four of those apps though…
