A shot in the arm for holidays! Travel firms report surge in bookings from over-50s and believe rapid jab rollout is giving them ’vaccine confidence’
- Tui and National Express have seen a surge in ‘grey pound’ bookings this week
- Over-50s, and particularly pensioners, gaining confidence because of vaccine
- The UK has already vaccinated more people than any other country in Europe
Holiday firms are reporting an explosion in ‘grey pound’ bookings from Easter onwards as Britain’s millions of over-50s plan multiple breaks away because of ‘vaccine confidence’ and the likely scrapping of travel restrictions.
Tui, the UK’s biggest package holiday company, said today that more than half of online bookings this week to places such as Greece and Spain has been in that age group and many want a fortnight away instead of the usual seven nights.
Coach group National Express, whose customers are almost all over-65, has seen a 185% increase in bookings for Spring and Summer 2021 compared to figures for 2020 with the Cotswolds, Isle of Wight, York and the Lake District the most popular destinations.
It came as Boris Johnson last night pledged a ‘big, big stream of vaccines’ would arrive over the coming weeks. The vaccine figures came on the worst day of the pandemic so far, with another 1,564 lives lost across the UK – pushing the death toll over 100,000.
But with the over-50s expected to all get a jab by Easter, they are booking breaks away in their droves with some booking a break a month from the summer.
Tui says the over-50s are booking more holidays than at any point for a year – and they are also longer breaks after months at home
Resident Clifford Bevan receives an injection of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from Dr Jess Harvey at the Lady Forester Community nursing home in Wenlock, Shropshire
Package holiday giant Tui say that 50 per cent of bookings on their website have been the over-50s.
Border chaos as Government is forced to DELAY demanding passengers test negative before entering UK until Monday
Arrivals will be allowed into the UK without a negative Covid test this weekend after passenger panic forced ministers to delay their plan for tighter border controls.
The Government was preparing to enforce a stricter regime requiring tests 72 hours pre-departure from 4am on Friday, but this has now been pushed back to Monday.
The delay came after passengers booked on long-haul flights scrabbled to find tests in time and feared they would incur £500 fines if unable to access one.
Airlines also hit out at the Government for a lack of clarity over which types of tests would be accepted.
Late Wednesday night the Department for Transport fleshed out the details of the new policy and confirmed that even rapid-result lateral flow tests would be fine.
In an 11pm tweet, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wrote: ‘To give international arrivals time to prepare, passengers will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before departure to England from MONDAY 18 JANUARY at 4am.’
Guidance published by the department said travellers arriving before this deadline ‘are under no legal obligation to get a test before you travel’.
‘You should not be denied boarding for failing to provide proof of a negative test result, and will not be fined on arrival into England.’
Passengers were nevertheless still urged to produce a negative test result anyway, although failure to do so will not be punished with fines until Monday.
Andrew Flintham, Managing Director for TUI UK & Ireland told the BBC’s Today programme: ‘We’re seeing people booking longer holidays.Rather than the usual 7 nights they are booking 10s, 11s and 14s. Maybe trying to catch some of that missed holiday back up. And there are more multi-generational groups’.
‘Here we can see a real sense of optimism, a real sense of normality and when we do get to operate holidays our customers love them and will love them more than before because they have been such a scarce thing to do.
National Express say that UK bookings are up 185 per cent in the last fortnight for those 65 and over compared to last year, despite cancelling all services into February due to the current national lockdown.
The coach business says the most popular destinations were the Cotswolds, Isle of Wight, York, the Lake District, North Wales, the Isle of Man, Northumbria, the Isles of Scilly, Scotland and Cornwall.
Jit Desai, head of holidays and travel at National Express, said: ‘We launched our spring summer brochure over the weekend and on Monday we took a week’s worth of bookings in a day.
‘Many are having their first jabs and know that in around 12 weeks they will be having their second, and that gives them a level of certainty that they will be able to enjoy their 2021 holiday’.
Dawn and Ray, from Hampshire, will be vaccinated in February because they are in their mid-70s.
She said: ‘We’re raring to go. And once we have that vaccine we’ll feel much better. We’ve booked five holidays this year coming. We’re going to Wales, Leicestershire, to York, a mystery tour and to the Cotswolds. It doesn’t matter [if we’ve been before] – just to get away is the main thing’.
More than 21million Covid jabs are on British soil, it was revealed today.
Not all the vaccine consignments have passed regulatory checks – and many are yet to be put into vials.
But the fact so many logistical hurdles have been jumped is a major victory in the fight against coronavirus.
AstraZeneca, the firm which helped develop the Oxford University vaccine, yesterday said it is to double the number of vaccines released to the NHS by next week, with production to then be ramped up to two million doses a week.
The firm is understood to have enough vaccine for 19million doses already in the country, of which 1.1million have already been provided. At least another three million are in vials, awaiting approval. ‘In excess’ of one million of these are expected to be released next week.
Another 15million doses are at factories in Oxford, Staffordshire and Wrexham, waiting to be put in vials.
Coach group National Express, whose customers are almost all over-65, has seen a 185% increase in bookings for Spring and Summer 2021 compared to figures for 2020
Pfizer is understood to have delivered at least five million doses. It means enough doses for 24million vaccines have been provided so far, of which three million have already been given out.
AstraZeneca is expected to provide a total of 40million by the end of March, by which time Moderna – a third firm with an approved vaccine and a deal with the UK – will start to provide the first of 17million doses.
A Government spokesman said: ‘The UK has already vaccinated more people than any other country in Europe.’
High street pharmacies are to begin rolling out Covid vaccines, as the virus death toll across the UK climbed above 100,000.
Boots and Superdrug branches will be among the six stores across England which will be able to administer the jabs from Thursday while the Government aims to hit its target of vaccinating all people in the four most vulnerable groups by the middle of next month.
Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield, Cullimore Chemist in Edgware, north London, Woodside Pharmacy in Telford, and Appleton Village pharmacy in Widnes will be in the first group to hand out the injections, alongside Boots in Halifax, and Superdrug in Guildford.
Those who are eligible for a vaccine will be contacted and invited to make an appointment through a new national booking service.
This gives them the option of having a vaccine at a pharmacy or in a GP-led vaccination centre.
Brazil virus flights fiasco: Ministers to ban flights to UK from Brazil AND surrounding countries due to new Covid super-strain – but restrictions won’t come into force until later TODAY, days after it was discovered
All travel from Brazil will be banned today to stop the spread of a new virus strain.
Boris Johnson yesterday admitted being ‘concerned’ about the mutant Brazilian variant – which the Government has known about for at least four days – and raised fears it could be resistant to vaccines.
Experts fear it is similar to the highly contagious Kent and South African strains which emerged late last year.
It is understood ministers will today consider imposing a complete ban on flights and visitors for the whole of South America to tackle the Brazil variant. This would mirror beefed-up restrictions brought in for South Africa due to its mutant strain.
The Brazilian variant could pose a massive setback to attempts to return the UK to normality, though it is unknown at present whether the strain has reached Britain.
Amid a row over the Government’s response to the latest strain, the Prime Minister was yesterday accused by MPs of failing to immediately tighten the borders.
MPs also questioned why new rules requiring all travellers to test negative before they enter the UK are being brought in ten months after the pandemic began. Other countries have had similar rules in place for months.
Home affairs committee chairman Yvette Cooper savaged ministers for failing to act fast enough.
The Prime Minister revealed ministers were looking at ways to stop a variant of the variant found in Brazil — but dodged questions about whether Britain would adopt a travel ban
Pictured: A gravedigger works at the Parque Taruma cemetery amid the coronavirus outbreak in Manaus, Brazil in December
Questioning Mr Johnson at a hearing on Wednesday, she demanded to know why UK borders were not immediately shut to Brazil travellers after warnings of the new strain.
She asked him: ‘Why aren’t you taking immediate action on a precautionary basis?’
Miss Cooper also criticised the quarantine system for being ‘so much weaker’ than measures in dozens of other countries which include rigorous border testing.
‘She said it meant arrivals being allowed to board public transport to get to where they will self-isolate after landing, with few checks to see if people are quarantining.
Miss Cooper added: ‘You give the impression each time that you just delay all of the difficult and uncomfortable decisions until the last possible minute and when so many lives are at stake, Prime Minister, is this the leadership we really need?’
Mr Johnson claimed ‘huge quantities of checks’ are being carried out to see if people are self-isolating.
As of Friday, all international passengers coming to the UK will have to show a negative Covid-19 test before they enter.
Passengers – including homecoming Britons – will have to get a test up to 72 hours before they travel. Border Force guards will carry out spot checks and anyone flouting the rules will be fined £500.
It is understood ministers will today consider imposing a complete ban on flights and visitors for the whole of South America to tackle the Brazil variant. Pictured: Guarulhos, Sao Paulo
All three of the mutated versions of the coronavirus found in recent weeks – the ones from Kent, South Africa and Brazil – have had a change on the spike protein of the virus called N501Y, which scientists say makes it better able to latch onto the body and spread
Speaking in this afternoon’s Liaison Committee meeting, the Prime Minister said: ‘We are concerned about the new Brazilian variant.
‘We already have tough measures… to protect this country from new infections coming in from abroad. We are taking steps to do that in respect of the Brazilian variant.’
He added: ‘There are lots of questions we still have about that variant, we don’t know for instance, any more than we know whether the South African variant is vaccine resistant.’
Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, told ITV’s Peston show there was no evidence any of the variants led to more severe disease.
It is not yet known if the Brazilian strain is present in the UK. Brazil has had one of the world’s highest Covid death tolls – 205,000.
The SAGE sub-group NERVTAG discussed the issue on Tuesday.
Brazil has already banned flights from the UK amid the pandemic, so the new move would be a reciprocal one.
In 2019, there were around 290,000 visits to the UK from people travelling from Brazil, but there are currently no direct flights running from Brazil to the UK, according to Skyscanner.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told the Commons a new jab could be manufactured in 30 to 40 days if a variant of the virus is found to be less responsive to those available.
The Department for Transport published small print of the rules requiring all passengers entering the UK to show a negative test only late last night – shortly before they are due to kick in.
But they won’t be enforced until Monday due to a ‘grace period’ brought in after a backlash from the travel industry. Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, chairman of the Airport Operators Association, said: ‘It’s horrendous.
‘We need to support travellers who are facing the issue of needing to get home.
‘The industry wants to deliver the safest way to get home, but it needs that guidance and the detail in good time.’
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE BRAZIL VARIANT?
Name: B.1.1.248 or P.1
Date: Discovered in Tokyo, Japan, in four travellers arriving from Manaus, Brazil, on January 2.
Is it in the UK? Public health officials and scientists randomly sample around 1 in 10 coronavirus cases in the UK and they have not yet reported any cases of B.1.1.248, but this doesn’t rule it out completely.
Why should we care? The variant has the same spike protein mutation as the highly transmissible versions found in Kent and South Africa – named N501Y – which makes the spike better able to bind to receptors inside the body.
It has a third, less well-studied mutation called K417T, and the ramifications of this are still being researched.
What do the mutations do?
The N501Y mutation makes the spike protein better at binding to receptors in people’s bodies and therefore makes the virus more infectious.
Exactly how much more infectious it is remains to be seen, but scientists estimate the similar-looking variant in the UK is around 56 per cent more transmissible than its predecessor.
Even if the virus doesn’t appear to be more dangerous, its ability to spread faster and cause more infections will inevitably lead to a higher death rate.
Another key mutation in the variant, named E484K, is also on the spike protein and is present in the South African variant.
E484K may be associated with an ability to evade parts of the immune system called antibodies, researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said in a scientific paper published online.
However, there are multiple immune cells and substances involved in the destruction of coronavirus when it gets into the body so this may not translate to a difference in how people get infected or recover.
Will our vaccines still protect us?
There is no reason to believe that already-developed Covid vaccines will not protect against the variant.
The main and most concerning change to this version of the virus is its N501Y mutation.
Pfizer, the company that made the first vaccine to get approval for public use in the UK, has specifically tested its jab on viruses carrying this mutation in a lab after the variants emerged in the UK and South Africa.
They found that the vaccine worked just as well as it did on other variants and was able to ignore the change.
And, as the South African variant carries another of the major mutations on the Brazilian strain (E484K) and the Pfizer jab worked against that, too, it is likely that the new mutation would not affect vaccines.
The immunity developed by different types of vaccine is broadly similar, so if one of them is able to work against it, the others should as well.
Professor Ravi Gupta, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, said: ‘Vaccines are still likely to be effective as a control measure if coverage rates are high and transmission is limited as far as possible.’
Paul Charles, the chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: ‘There is not enough clarity around the type of tests allowed, leaving consumers panicking about whether they will be let into the country without a fine, because they have the wrong documentation. Policy on the hoof never works.’
Up to 100,000 Britons are estimated to be abroad. Many went in mid-December before the third lockdown.
Experts last night questioned about why Britain had not brought in testing at the border, despite dozens of countries around the world having had it in place for months.
Professor Lawrence Young, a molecular oncologist at the University of Warwick, said: ‘You could argue it’s too little, too late. We should have been doing this ages ago.
‘If you look at where successful lockdowns, in terms of returning back to normality, have happened, that’s where people have closed their borders. The horse has bolted.
‘It is hard to understand why we haven’t been more stringent about international travel and why we’re doing testing now and didn’t pay as much attention to it last March. Testing has to be a really important part of this.’
A Department for Transport spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘As the Prime Minister said, we are aware of this new variant and are considering urgent measures to reduce the spread to the UK.
‘Arrivals from Brazil are already required to self-isolate for ten days or face a fine starting at £500.’
It is normal for viruses to mutate and early signs don’t suggest that any of the new variants of coronavirus are more deadly than others, but in some places it is evolving to be able to spread faster.
If the virus is faster spreading it will inevitably lead to more cases which will in turn lead to a higher death count, even if the strain itself isn’t more dangerous.
The variant that emerged in Kent, now estimated to be around 56 per cent more transmissible than its predecessor, has quickly become the dominant form of the virus in England and has led to the country’s longest and toughest lockdown since March 2020.
There is no evidence to suggest vaccines will be any less effective against this variant. Pfizer, maker of the first jab to be approved, tested theirs on the similar UK and South Africa variants and said it still worked just as well.
The mutated variant of coronavirus was discovered in Japan last week in four people who had arrived on a flight from Brazil. It was first detected in Brazil in October.
Scientists said it had similarities to that of the highly contagious variants in Britain and South Africa.
Namely, it has a genetic mutation called N501Y, which changes the shape of the spike proteins found on the outside of the virus.
This mutation makes the virus more able to latch onto the receptors inside the body that it targets, essentially meaning it successfully makes it past the body’s natural defences more often.
Therefore people who are exposed to the virus become infected more often than they would if the other person was infected with an older, less contagious strain.
A World Health Organization report on the variant last week said: ‘The variant was identified when whole-genome sequencing was conducted on samples from 4 travellers from Brazil who were tested at the airport…
‘Through our regional offices, we are working with both Japanese and Brazilian authorities to evaluate the significance of these findings.
‘We are also working with our Viral Evolution Working Group to assess the significance of this, and if this variant as well as others identified in recent months result in changes in transmissibility, clinical presentation or severity, or if they impact on countermeasures, including diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.’
It added: ‘The same comprehensive approach to controlling Covid-19 works against these variants.
‘At an individual level, protective measures work for all identified variants: physical distancing, wearing a mask, keeping rooms well ventilated, avoiding crowds, cleaning hands, and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue.’
It is too early on in the variant’s discovery for politicians or scientists to be confident about how the changes to the virus will affect outbreaks.
Lab testing suggests its N501Y mutation could make it more transmissible – the UK variant with the same change is estimated to be around 56 per cent more infectious, but other changes to the virus may affect this, too.
And another key mutation in the variant, named E484K, which is also on the spike protein, may be associated with an ability to evade parts of the immune system called antibodies, researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said in a scientific paper published online.
However, there are multiple immune cells and substances involved in the destruction of coronavirus when it gets into the body so this may not translate to a difference in how people get infected or recover.
There is no reason to believe that already-developed Covid vaccines will not protect against the variant.
The main and most concerning change to this version of the virus is its N501Y mutation, which has been linked to faster transmission.
Pfizer, the company that made the first vaccine to get approval for public use in the UK, has specifically tested its jab on viruses carrying this mutation in a lab after the variants emerged in the UK and South Africa.
They found that the vaccine worked just as well as it did on other variants and was able to ignore the change.
And, as the South African variant carries another of the major mutations on the Brazilian strain (E484K) and the Pfizer jab worked against that, too, it is likely that the new mutation would not affect vaccines.
This new variant (shown in light green) was first spotted in Brazil in October and accounted for a growing share of infections there in November
The immunity developed by different types of vaccine is broadly similar, so if one of them is able to work against it, the others should as well.
Professor Ravi Gupta, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, said: ‘The Brazilian variant has three key mutations in the spike receptor binding domain (RBD) that largely mirror some of the mutations we are worried about it in the South African variant, hence the concern.
‘The SARS-CoV-2 RBD is one of the main targets for our immune defences and also the region targeted by vaccines and changes within this region are therefore worrisome.
‘Vaccines are still likely to be effective as a control measure if coverage rates are high and transmission is limited as far as possible.’
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan said in its report that the people infected with the variant were found in airport screening in Tokyo on January 2.
They had travelled from Amazonas, a state in the north of Brazil which contains the city Manaus, home to two million people and the first place the variant was found.
The disease institute (NIID) said: ‘Information on the variant isolate is limited to viral genome sequence data.
‘Further investigation is necessary to assess infectivity, pathogenicity, and impact on laboratory diagnosis and vaccine efficacy of this variant strain.
‘NIID recommends that persons infected with the variant isolate should be monitored in an isolated room and active epidemiological investigation should be initiated including contact tracing (with source investigation) and monitoring of the clinical course.’
Ministers and experts have said the repeated emergence of new variants is a warning sign that the coronavirus is evolving frequently and that some of the evolutions make significant changes to how the virus works.
Although the variants spotted already don’t seem to make the virus more deadly or have the ability to get past a vaccine, the more different variants there are, the more likely it is than one will have a mutation that spells disaster.
Professor Tulio de Oliveira, a virologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa, told The Telegraph: ‘This variant is a wake up call that we should try to really decrease transmission of SARS-CoV-2 [coronavirus].
‘It is clear that if you leave it circulating, the virus has the ability to outsmart us and become better at transmission and evasion of the antibody response.’
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