Image source, PA Media

After weeks of questions and speculation about whether the UK might ease its travel rules anytime soon, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock spoke about the matter on Sky News yesterday.

He said government ministers were working on plans for quarantine-free travel for people who had been fully vaccinated with two jabs.

"This hasn't been clinically advised yet - we're working on it," he said.

"We're working on plans to essentially allow the vaccine to bring back some of the freedoms that have had to be restricted to keep people safe.

"After all, that's the whole purpose of the vaccination programme, that's why it's so important that every adult goes out and gets the jab."

Asked if the plans could be in place as soon as August, Mr Hancock replied: "We'll get there when it's safe to do so."

You can read more here.

Image source, Reuters

The UK's travel industry is seeking to increase pressure on the government to ease the rules on foreign travel.

The industry body Abta - representing travel agents and tour operators - estimates that 195,000 travel jobs have either been lost during the pandemic or are at risk.

Other tourism bosses have also spoken out in favour of the rules being eased.

"The outbound travel sector has been decimated by this pandemic and by the government's haphazard response to it," says Derek Jones, boss of luxury travel firm Kuoni.

He says he and other firms are calling on the government "to acknowledge that the restrictions they have placed on international travel are having a deep and devastating impact on travel businesses".

"We are united in one message today: we want to see the safe reopening of international travel alongside targeted financial support for businesses which have not been able to trade for well over a year."

As anticipation builds for the government’s next review of travel rules, a few of Wednesday’s newspaper front pages lead with the latest hopes that it could partly reopen.

The Daily Mail says it has learnt that ministers are planning to end the quarantine rule for fully-vaccinated holidaymakers returning from amber list countries.

The change could come as early as 19 July, the paper says.

The Daily Mirror reports the same – and quotes Health Secretary Matt Hancock as saying yesterday: "We're working on it."

Children would also be included if travelling with their parents, the paper adds.

And the Times says that the UK is on track to lift all remaining lockdown rules on 19 July, with the government encouraged by the low number of coronavirus deaths recently and slowdown in infections.

A government source tells the paper that after rules are lifted, the emphasis will be on "personal responsibility" and people will still be advised to wear masks in certain circumstances.

Read more here.

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

We’ll be bringing you the latest news on Covid-19 from the UK and around the world throughout the day.

Our main headlines this morning are:

• Senior travel industry bosses have joined forces to put pressure on the UK government to change its Covid travel rules, saying the "haphazard response" is having a "deep and devastating impact on travel businesses"
• Industry body Abta says hundreds of travel agents, pilots and cabin crew will take part in a "day of action" in London, Edinburgh, Belfast, and virtually in Wales, to demand the expansion of the green list, and the removal testing and quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers
• It comes after the health secretary said ministers are "working on" plans for quarantine-free travel from amber list countries for people who are fully vaccinated
• Meanwhile, more than five million people became millionaires across the world in 2020 despite economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic, Credit Suisse has found
• University of Oxford scientists are trialling giving the drug Ivermectin to over-50s with Covid symptoms to see if it can keep them out of hospital