Katharine Da Costa
BBC News

Sixteen charities - including Blood Cancer UK, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Kidney Care UK - are warning the lifting most legal Covid restrictions including masks in England on 19 July will put thousands of people with a weakened immune system at risk. They are calling on the government to provide more support and guidance.

These people could include, for example, those who've had an organ transplant or suffer from certain genetic conditions or diseases such as cancer and HIV.

The charities point to research that suggests these groups won't get the same high levels of protection from vaccines compared with healthy people. The charities want employment protection and the option to continue to work from home wherever possible.

The government advised more than 3.5 million clinically extremely vulnerable people could stop shielding in April. Its latest advice is to remain cautious. Plans for vaccine booster shots are being drawn up for the autumn.

But with predictions that covid infections could hit 100,000 cases a day later this summer, the charities say more support and guidance is needed to help some of the most vulnerable people to make informed decisions about personal risk.

We have more about the current plan to ease England's lockdown.

We've been hearing a lot about travel this morning after Grant Shapps' announcement that fully vaccinated UK residents will not have to quarantine when returning to England from countries on the amber travel list from 19 July.

But what are the new rules for double-jabbed passengers?

• Adults will no longer have to quarantine for 10 days on return from an amber-list country, if they were fully vaccinated in the UK
• People will have to prove they were vaccinated at least 14 days previously, using the NHS Covid Pass (on the NHS app) or an NHS Covid Pass letter
• Passengers will still need to pay for tests before and after their return. The second one must be a PCR test, but they will no longer have to take a day 8 test
• Under-18s returning from amber list countries will also be exempt from quarantine
• The guidance that people should not travel to amber list countries will also be removed from 19 July

The next review of countries on the green, red and amber lists will be on 15 July. Here's our full explainer on the rules.

As we've been reporting throughout the morning, the sensitivity of the NHS Covid app for England and Wales is to be reviewed.

It comes amid fears surging cases will lead to millions of people being told to self-isolate over the summer.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps spoke to the BBC about this earlier.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC Tokyo correspondent

The Olympic flame has arrived in Tokyo just hours after the Japanese government announced it plans to ban almost all spectators from the Olympic Games.

The decision came after the Japanese government was forced to declare a new state of emergency for the capital because of rapidly rising Covid cases, and the spread of the Delta variant.

This morning should have been a moment of high excitement, the beginning of the final stage of the Olympic flame relay as it makes its way to its destination at the Olympic stadium in two weeks' time.

Instead, the flame was presented on an almost empty sports field, doused with rain and with only a few officials and media present.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

There will be no relay through the capital, no cheering crowds lining the route.

Instead Tokyo is being put under another state of emergency. Covid infections have been rising steadily for the last three weeks, and it has become all too obvious the current restrictions are no longer working.

The Olympics have become essentially a TV event, with hundreds of thousands of ticket holders left disappointed, with a ban on spectators, and with another billion dollar hole in Japan's Olympic finances.

The overall risk of children becoming severely ill or dying from Covid is extremely low, a new analysis of Covid infection data confirms.

Data from the first 12 months, external of the pandemic in England shows 25 under-18s died from Covid, putting the overall risk of death at around two in a million children, scientists estimate.

Those living with chronic illnesses and neuro-disabilities were most at risk.

The conclusions are being considered by the UK's vaccine advisory group. Currently, under-18s are not routinely offered Covid vaccines, even if they have other underlying health conditions that put them at risk.

Image source, Getty Images

Bookings for flights and holidays have surged following the decision that fully vaccinated travellers returning from amber-list countries will not have to self-isolate after 19 July.

The exemption applies to UK residents who have had both jabs from the NHS. Under-18s will also be exempt.

Airlines said there was a rapid rise in ticket purchases within hours after the government announced it was relaxing quarantine rules on Thursday.

EasyJet said bookings to amber-list destinations increased by 400%.

Analysts said they did not expect flight and holiday prices to rise.

Simon Calder, the Independent's travel correspondent, said he believed some destinations would come down in price because of airlines and holiday companies adding extra capacity.

"Because there is so much of the world that has just opened up to those of us who are lucky enough to be jabbed, I'm not seeing any surges in prices," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK economy expanded by 0.8% in May as Covid lockdown measures were relaxed to allow pubs and restaurants to serve customers indoors.

It is the fourth month of growth in a row, but it was at a slower rate than analysts had predicted.

It was also a slowdown from April, when the economy grew 2% as restrictions eased for non-essential retailers and hospitality firms could serve outside.

The economy is still 3.1% below pre-pandemic levels, the ONS said, external.

Pubs and restaurants "were responsible for the vast majority of the growth seen in May", said Jonathan Athow, ONS deputy national statistician for economic statistics

"Hotels also saw a marked recovery as restrictions lifted," he added.

Much of the talk in the UK is about where the UK government allows residents to travel, but of course many other countries have their own travel restrictions.

And for some places even on the UK's green list for travel, there are tight restrictions - or even bans - on people coming from the UK.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says, however, that a growing number of countries are accepting the NHS app as proof of vaccination, which will make foreign travel easier in the future.

"It's good to see that 30 countries and territories now accept the NHS app... which shows people's vaccination status," Shapps tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"So where countries are requiring double vaccination, which I think will become the norm during this summer, [UK residents] are able to demonstrate that."

Here's a look at the latest Covid figures in the UK, from our Visual and Data Journalism Team.

You can check the latest numbers from around the world on our global tracker.

Image source, PA Media

We've got a bit more from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps now, who warns that people travelling to the UK should expect additional queues when they check in for their flights home due to the need for coronavirus checks.

These checks, from 19 July, will also include seeing if somebody has been double vaccinated and therefore can skip the amber-list quarantine.

Shapps told the BBC: "Before you board a plane you would need to show you've completed your passenger locator form, that you've carried out a pre-departure test, that you've got your test booked for day two and all of that needs to be checked by the carrier - the airline usually - before you travel.

"So the place to expect queues is the airport you're coming from. Once you get back to the UK all of that is starting to be automated.

"People should expect more disruption than usual but I know that everyone is working very hard to minimise those queues."

Image source, Getty Images

Some news from Australia, where Sydney will face harsher Covid restrictions after a surge in cases showed current measures had not worked to stop the spread of the virus.

Australia's largest city reported 44 new cases on Friday, and said a high number of people in the community had been exposed.

Residents are banned from travelling more than 10km (six miles) from their homes.

Outdoor exercise is limited to groups of two, and only one person from each household can go grocery shopping.

Funeral gatherings have also been limited to just 10 people.

The New South Wales state government on Friday acknowledged the rules were "shocking" but said the increased number of cases after the city was put in lockdown on 26 June had made it necessary.

Most Australians - around 90% of the population - remain unvaccinated.

Image source, PA Media

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced yesterday that fully vaccinated UK residents will not have to quarantine when arriving in England from countries on the amber travel list after 19 July. The exemption will also apply to unvaccinated under-18s.

However, the exemption for adults will only apply for those who have had their vaccines in the UK.

Explaining this decision on BBC Breakfast this morning, Shapps says "right now, we don't have a method" to certify vaccines given outside of the UK.

For those in the UK, their vaccine status will be recorded on the NHS app.

"We need to have a version of being able to automatically recognise [non-UK administered vacccines] in our passenger locator form, which is the form everybody has to fill in before they come to the UK," Shapps says.

He adds, however: "I do want to move in pretty quick order to being able to recognise vaccinations from other countries who use World Health Organization-approved vaccines.

"We'll work on that as quickly as possible."

Some of Friday's papers also report that the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales could be altered to reduce the numbers of people self-isolating.

The Daily Mail leads with suggestions that the app is to be watered down to stop it "crippling the economy and public services this summer".

It says thousands will be spared what it calls "isolation madness," by reducing the app's sensitivity to cut the numbers being asked to quarantine unnecessarily.

The Daily Mirror notes that the head of the UK Health Security Agency has said the app can be re-jigged to work better with an increasingly vaccinated population.

But the Sun wants to go a step further on isolation. "Why not scrap it for the double jabbed on 19 July?" it suggests.

You can read the full review here.

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned earlier, the NHS Covid contact tracing app used in England and Wales could be made less sensitive in order to reduce the number of people asked to self-isolate.

The app detects the distance between users and the length of time spent in close proximity - currently two metres (6ft) or less and more than 15 minutes.

A source close to Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he was considering changes, amid a huge rise in alerts.

The Department of Health said the app "is, and always has been advisory".

The system allows people who test positive to anonymously share their test result, triggering alerts for those detected as close contacts in the days before the test.

Under current rules, those who receive an alert are asked to stay at home for up to 10 days.

Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. We'll bring you the latest developments on the pandemic from around the world, throughout the day.

If you're just waking up, here are the main headlines:

• The NHS Covid contact tracing app used in England and Wales could be made less sensitive in order to reduce the number of people asked to self-isolate, amid rising cases
• Travel bookings have surged following the decision to scrap quarantine for fully vaccinated UK residents from amber-list countries after 19 July
• The overall risk of children becoming severely ill or dying from Covid is extremely low, a new analysis of Covid infection data confirms
• UK councils face a £3bn black hole in their budgets as they emerge from the pandemic, a BBC investigation into their finances can reveal