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Islands will be looked at separately when travel rules are updated, Secretary Grant Shapps confirms.

The move raises hopes popular holiday hotspots such as the Canaries and the Balearics could be moved to the green list of travel destinations with fewest restrictions.

But he says no decisions have yet been made: "There’s a difference between the ‘in principle’, the way we want to make this work, and the actual data and what the Joint Biosecurity Centre are going to come forward to us with. That information I haven’t seen as yet."

• What are the rules for green, amber and red list countries?

The level of coronavirus cases, vaccination data and the ability to sequence the genome to discover variants are all taken into consideration.

"Sometimes that facility can be a problem in smaller locations," Shapps says.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

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Marks & Spencer has reported big losses for last year as the pandemic took its toll on clothing sales.

It made a pre-tax loss of £201.2m in the 52 weeks to 27 March, down from a £67.2m profit in the previous year.

But M&S said food sales were up, contributing to "a resilient financial performance in a year of disruption".

The High Street stalwart is in the middle of a huge transformation programme, which last year saw 7,000 job cuts across stores and management.

Read the full story here.

BBC Breakfast

Labour is having its say on the government clarifying its advice to areas hard hit by the Indian variant.

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy tells BBC Breakfast: "I think a lot of people in the affected areas have really stopped listening.

"We woke up on Monday morning to find apparently that guidance had been in force on the government's website since Friday, telling us not to move in and out of affected areas but nobody had bothered to tell us."

• Can I travel to areas with the Indian variant?

She adds: "These are areas like Bolton, which is right next to me in Wigan, that have been in almost continuous lockdown for over a year now.

"People haven't been able to hug families, you've got grandparents who haven't met grandchildren, and to treat us as an afterthought on a government website is to treat people's lives with absolute contempt."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps admits the communications around the guidance for people living in coronavirus hotspots "could have been clearer".

It comes after a day of confusion about whether the government was imposing local lockdowns on areas struggling to contain the Indian variant.

Shapps says: "It’s important to say there are no new local lockdowns, no change in the law – the law is the same throughout England with regards to coronavirus.

"But I think it would also be churlish not to say that the communications could have been clearer and this was in essence simply guidance or advice just to remind people living in areas where the level happens to be quite a lot higher than the national average of the sensible things to do."

Read more on the new guidance here.

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People aged 30 and 31 in England are being invited to book to have their first dose of a Covid vaccine.

The NHS is urging these million or so to take up the offer of a jab at one of the 1,600 available locations, including mosques, museums and sports grounds, as well as pharmacies.

Nearly three-quarters of adults in the UK have already had one dose, and more than two-fifths have had two.

The government plans to offer first doses to all adults by the end of July.

Read more here.

See all today's front pages here.

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The Czech government today appoints its fourth health minister since the Covid pandemic began. Adam Vojtech was actually health minister at the start of the crisis and was widely praised for his performance but resigned because of a row over masks with the prime minister, Andrej Babis. The man Vojtech replaces - hospital director and plastic surgeon Petr Arenberger - has stood down following media reports into extensive property holdings he didn’t declare before he was appointed.

Germany’s seven-day incidence rate has fallen below 50 cases per 100,000 people for the first time since October last year. The RKI public health institute says it’s now at 46.8. Another 2,626 cases have been reported in the past 24 hours.

France’s academy of medicine has called for compulsory Covid vaccinations for a series of professions, including education, health and security and emergency services. It’s also recommended that jobs that involve contact with the public, such as hotel and catering, should require the Covid jab, as well as for anyone donating blood or organs.

Serbia and Slovenia have agreed to mutually recognise each other’s coronavirus vaccination certificates. The deal covers vaccines yet to be approved by the EMA. The Sinopharm vaccine has been the most widely-used in Serbia, and the non-EU country has also begun producing Russia’s Sputnik V.

Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell is confident infections are in decline, partly because of vaccinations and warmer weather allowing people to head outdoors. In some areas including Stockholm cases have fallen by 40% in a week. Tegnell says it’s a similar pattern to last year and he believes the decline will continue.

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Advice has been updated for eight areas in England worst-hit by the Indian coronavirus variant after the government clarified it was not imposing local restrictions.

After a day of confusion, the amended advice, external asks people to minimise travel into and out of Bolton, Blackburn, Kirklees, Bedford, Burnley, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside.

Earlier advice had asked people to avoid non-essential travel altogether.

Many people called off plans at short notice when that initial advice emerged without an announcement, and local leaders said they had not been consulted.

As well as minimising travel, people in the affected areas are being asked to meet outdoors and stay 2m apart from anyone in other households, wherever those things are possible.

Read the full story here.

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• Advice has been updated for eight areas in England worst-hit by the Indian coronavirus variant after the government clarified it was not imposing local restrictions. Amended advice asks people to minimise travel out of the hotspots - rather than avoid non-essential travel altogether
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ex-senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, will be questioned by MPs at 09:30 BST as part of an ongoing inquiry into "lessons learnt" about coronavirus. You'll be able to follow along on the BBC News website
• About a million people aged 30 and 31 in England are being invited to book their first dose of Covid vaccine
• Amateur choirs have said how they feel devastated after a rule change meant groups in England could only gather in groups of six people indoors and 30 outdoors.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s another busy day, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest from the UK and around the world, as and when we get it.