Travel restrictions to dozens of holiday destinations are set to be watered down in time for the summer holidays.
A review at the end of June could mean quarantine and testing requirements are slashed for a number of popular locations.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today confirmed a ‘traffic light’ system to allow foreign travel to restart as soon as next month – and said the British public can now think about booking summer holidays abroad as long as they consider the risks.
He said: ‘I’m not telling people that they shouldn’t book some holidays now, it’s the first time I’ve been able to say that for many months, I think everybody doing it understands there are risks with coronavirus.
‘For the first time, people can start to think about visiting loved ones abroad, or perhaps a summer holiday, but we’re doing it very, very cautiously because we don’t want to see any return of coronavirus in this country’.
One Whitehall source said Greece could make it on to the so-called ‘green list’ next month despite a recent rise in cases, while the USA, Gibraltar, Malta and much of the Caribbean are tipped for green status.
Those returning from these countries where the virus is under control will not have to quarantine on return. They will have to take only one test after flying home, rather than the current two. And ministers are said to be considering giving travellers free Covid tests to take abroad to save the hassle and cost of arranging one before flying home.
But under Boris Johnson’s ‘traffic light’ system for re-starting foreign travel on May 17, it is expected the vast majority of returning holidaymakers will be required to take PCR tests – which cost around £120 – a move that risks pricing families out of a summer break. It would cost the average family of four an extra £600 on top of flights and accommodation.
Mr Shapps said today he was looking for companies to slash the cost of their PCR tests to £60 or less. He said: ‘Some of the higher end PCR tests should be half the price. I am undertaking today to drive down the costs of tests for travel and we’re looking at what innovative steps we can do around this. We’re trying to do everything we can.’
Airlines are piling pressure to allow passengers to use cheaper and faster lateral flow tests, which are currently being handed out for free for the Government. Others want the UK to adopt the same policy as in France, where travellers can get free, government-subsidised PCR tests at some airports if they show their plane ticket.
Easyjet chief executive Johan Lundgren says the sector is being held to a different standard. He said: ‘They are opening up the UK economy with lateral flow tests that are much cheaper, and much more accessible, so I can see the argument if they wanted to have some type of test that do a cheaper lateral flow test and if you tested positive you could then go on an do a PCR test’.
Travel consultant Paul Charles said: The Government is making the right moves to help the sector restart successfully in May especially with the removal of the Declaration to Travel form, but we still need to see rapid, lateral flow tests introduced at home for those returning from green countries.
‘This would bring down costs substantially and then restore confidence to book. At present, there are still too many layers of complexity to travel for those simply wanting a well-earned break or family visit in a safe country’.
Today’s Global Travel Taskforce report will not commit to a start date for the resumption of foreign trips, which are currently banned.
A Whitehall source said last night that ministers were ‘pretty confident’ travel would restart on May 17, as outlined in the Government’s road map out of lockdown.
In other measures to be announced today:
- A new list will be produced to warn holidaymakers of countries in danger of having quarantine re-imposed;
- Further reviews will see quarantine and testing re-examined on July 31 and October 1;
- The Civil Aviation Authority will be given new powers to tackle airlines that breach consumer rights when travel is disrupted;
- The passenger locator form filled in by all arrivals will be digitised for faster use through airport e-gates by the autumn;
- Transport sources said the UK would play a ‘leading role’ in establishing an international system of vaccine passports.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will today confirm a ‘traffic light’ system to allow foreign travel to restart as soon as next month. A Whitehall source said last night that ministers were ‘pretty confident’ travel would restart on May 17 to countries including Malta
Today’s Global Travel Taskforce report will not commit to a start date for the resumption of foreign trips, which are currently banned. Pictured: Could tourists be jetting off to New York if the US is included on the ‘green list’?
A review at the end of June could mean quarantine and testing requirements are slashed for a number of popular locations, including Greece which has seen a recent rise in case numbers. Pictured: The town of Oia on Santorini
This could open up the possibility of holidays to a range of popular destinations. Pictured: The Spanish island of Tenerife has been touted as a potential ‘green list’ destination
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye has welcomed the Government’s traffic light system approach to travel, but said there are ‘far better ways’ than using a costly PCR testing system for returning passengers.
He told BBC Breakfast: ‘It’s good news that we now have flying opened up again from May 17 at the earliest, and I think the risk-based approach with this traffic light system is a good step forward, and I think Grant Shapps has done a very good job to steer that through Government.
‘All of us will welcome the fact that if you are going to a country that is green, where there’s very low risk of variants of concern, very low levels of Covid, that you won’t need to quarantine when you’re back.’
He added: ‘If you are a British citizen, you’ve been fully vaccinated, and are going to somewhere low risk such as Israel or the United States, not only do you have to have a test before you get on the plane coming back to show that you don’t have Covid, you then have to take an expensive PCR test after you arrive to demonstrate again.
‘Most people would say: ‘That makes no sense, that’s a £150 bill I shouldn’t have to be paying when I’ve already demonstrated I don’t have Covid’.
‘I think there are far better ways of delivering on the Prime Minister’s promise of quick and easy testing, which we already use, such as taking a lateral flow test to demonstrate you don’t have Covid, and only taking a PCR test if you’ve tested positive, which of course in that case is exceptionally unlikely.’
Only a ‘handful’ of countries are likely to be placed on the green list at this point.
It means travellers returning from most other parts of the world will still have to quarantine and take a series of costly tests, making holidays impractical and unaffordable for many.
But Mr Shapps will today announce plans for a formal review of the system on June 28, aimed at easing restrictions to a much wider number of countries ahead of the holidays.
Sources said this could include cutting or abolishing the quarantine period for ‘amber list’ countries, and modifying the testing regime to allow for fewer or cheaper tests.
This could open up the possibility of holidays to a range of popular destinations.
Mr Shapps said: ‘This framework will help allow us to reopen travel safely and sustainably, ensure we protect our hard-won achievements on the vaccine rollout and offer peace of mind to both passengers and industry as we begin to take trips abroad once again.’
A decision on which, if any, countries will be given ‘green list’ status will be taken in conjunction with the Government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre, which monitors Covid trends.
One source said only a ‘handful’ of countries were likely to be named initially, based on Covid case rates, vaccination rates, the prevalence of ‘variants of concern’, and the country’s ability to identify new strains.
Travel experts have speculated Israel and Gibraltar, along with a number of Caribbean islands, could be among the first green list destinations because of their high vaccination rates.
One Whitehall source told the Mail Greece could join the list because of low levels of variants of concern.
Malta is predicted to be one of the countries on the initial green list. And the travel industry is pushing for the US to be added now that vaccination rates are soaring.
But sources pointed out it still has a travel ban in place for visitors from the UK.
There are hopes popular destinations such as Spain and Italy could have restrictions eased in time for the summer holidays.
Henry Smith, the Tory chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation Group, told the Telegraph: ‘I remain concerned that this is unduly burdensome and costly for the average passenger.
‘It won’t provide confidence for travellers to book up holidays from May 17. I think this will seriously impinge on an aviation and travel revival.’
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren claimed the plan was ‘a blow to all travellers’ and risked ‘making flying only for the wealthy’.
He added: ‘As the rest of British society and the economy opens up, it makes no sense to treat travel, particularly to low-risk countries, differently.’
Mark Tanzer, boss of travel trade organisation Abta, said permitting the use of lateral flow tests would ‘make international travel more accessible and affordable whilst still providing an effective mitigation against reimportation of the virus’.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said the announcement ‘does not represent a reopening of travel as promised by ministers’.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon called for more clarity on the Government’s plans and a pledge for financial support for the industry.
‘Time and again the UK Government have been devoid of strategy when it comes to protecting our borders against Covid,’ Mr McMahon said in a statement.
‘At a time when cases are rising across Europe and the threat of variants remains deeply worrying, we need a comprehensive hotel quarantine system, to help protect the gains of the vaccine. The first priority has to be keeping people safe.
Mr McMahon demanded more details about the criteria by which the traffic light system would be decided, and said the Government ‘must come up with a comprehensive financial support package for the aviation sector and its supply chain’.
The Business Travel Association (BTA) lambasted the report as ‘yet another hammer blow’ for business travel, and called on the Government to ‘at the very least’ maintain the furlough scheme for the travel industry until September.
‘Whilst we welcome the acknowledgement of the importance of business and leisure travel to the UK economy, this theoretical framework provides no more certainty than the Prime Minister’s brief comments on Monday,’ BTA CEO Clive Wratten said in a statement.
‘The traffic light system is something we have long campaigned for. However, it is only one piece of the jigsaw if the aviation, business, and leisure travel industries are to survive.
‘We urgently ask the Government to at the very least maintain the current furlough scheme until September for the entire travel supply chain. This will hopefully enable us to contribute to UK plc as soon as it is safe to do so.’
Rory Boland, editor of industry publication Which? Travel, said the report was ‘an important step towards resuming international travel’ but ‘falls short in providing solutions’, adding the current cost of Covid tests risked pricing people out of taking holidays.
‘There is also little detail on reassurances that destinations won’t suddenly be moved from green to amber or red, putting travellers at risk of last-minute changes and unaffordable quarantine costs,’ he said in a statement.
The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) welcomed the report, saying it would help airlines prepare for the return of international flying.
‘Clearly we would like the Government to sharpen their pencils on the plan in advance of implementation but the framework creates the building blocks to open up further through the built-in review periods,’ the board’s CEO Dale Keller said in a statement.
Mr Keller said BAR UK would also propose initiatives such as the acceptance of rapid lateral flow tests.
Health chiefs yesterday administered 408,396 second doses and 99,530 first doses of the Covid vaccine, figures showed
The number of Britons getting tell-tale Covid symptoms has more than halved in a week, data by ZOE and King’s College London has shown
Foreign ‘non-essential’ travel is currently banned – including holidays – and punishable with a £5,000 fine.
The UK already has a version of a traffic light system in place for people returning from abroad.
Some 39 countries are ‘red-listed’, meaning direct flights to the UK are halted.
Only UK residents are allowed to enter Britain if they have travelled from a red list country, and they must quarantine at a designated hotel.
Countries affected include Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. All other countries are effectively ‘amber-rated’, meaning returning travellers must quarantine at home.
They must also take a pre-flight test and then purchase a two-test package at a cost of around £200, which they must use on the second and eighth days after returning.
The high cost is due to the requirement to use ‘gold standard’ PCR tests. But ministers are looking at replacing them with quick turnaround ‘lateral flow devices’.
Boris Johnson is pushing for this to be in place by the time of the June 28 review, clearing the way for cheaper holidays abroad this summer.
The industry last night criticised the traffic light plan. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: ‘This does not represent a reopening of travel as promised by ministers, and the insistence on expensive and unnecessary PCR testing rather than rapid testing – even for low-risk countries – will pose an unsustainable burden.’
Tourism bosses urge ministers to make Covid testing cheaper for holidaymakers… after study showed we are paying twice as much as those on the continent
ByDavid Churchill Transport Correspondent For The Daily Mail
Ministers are facing growing calls to make Covid testing cheaper for holidaymakers after research showed costs in Britain are double those in Europe.
‘Gold-standard’ PCR tests – so-called because they are reliable though take longer to deliver a result – cost about £128 on average in the UK, the study found.
On the Continent, the average bill across eight of the most popular holiday destinations was only £62.
The findings have renewed calls for returning travellers to be allowed to take cheaper rapid tests – which are now available for free under a new government scheme to test all adults twice a week.
Under Boris Johnson’s ‘traffic light’ system for re-starting foreign travel, it is expected returning holidaymakers will be required to take PCR tests – a move that risks pricing families out of a summer break.
Medical healthcare technologist holding COVID-19 swab collection kit
Tory MP Henry Smith, chairman of the cross-party Future of Aviation group of MPs, said: ‘The sky-high cost of PCR tests runs the risk of being a major disincentive to travel for many and the Government must ensure that these costs are kept as low as possible … We should be looking to less expensive and burdensome tests which are now the standard and accepted test in every other part of society.’
Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said the Government should also work to reduce, if not eliminate, the cost for pre-departure tests that will be required by many popular destinations, such as Greece.
She added: ‘Without a cost-effective solution like this, a summer holiday will be out of reach for many.’
The study by the AOA and ABTA – The Travel Association, calculated the average cost of a PCR test in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.
Ministers are facing growing calls to make Covid testing cheaper for holidaymakers after research showed costs in Britain are double those in Europe. Stock photo used
It found costs were capped in some regions, so in Italy was £53, in Greece £51, £63 in Portugal, £70 in Spain, £77 in Belgium, £78 in Germany and £98 in the Netherlands.
In France, travellers can get free, government-subsidised PCR tests at some airports if they show their plane ticket.
Currently, all arrivals into the UK must book a two-test PCR package before travel, which costs £210 per person via the Government’s provider, Corporate Travel Management.
By comparison, lateral flow tests offer results in minutes and cost as little as £12 each, though they are less reliable.
Last night the Government suggested it was open to accepting the cheaper tests.
The Department for Transport said: ‘We will work with the travel industry and private testing providers to see how we can further reduce the cost of travel for the British public while ensuring travel is as safe as possible.
‘This could include cheaper tests being used when holidaymakers return home, as well as whether the Government would be able to provide pre-departure tests.’
Britain’s daily Covid cases fall by another third in a week with 3,030 more positive tests – while deaths rise slightly to 53
ByLuke Andrews Health Reporter For Mailonline
Britain’s daily Covid cases have fallen by a third in a week but deaths have crept up slightly, official data revealed today as Boris Johnson faced fresh calls to speed up his lockdown easing plans.
Department of Health figures showed another 3,030 cases and 53 deaths were recorded today — which was two more fatalities than last Thursday.
But the death figures are likely to be a blip because cases have tumbled downwards consistently since January — and the overall number of people dying is still dropping. Day-to-day counts can fluctuate.
More than 31.8million Brits have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine. Almost four times more second doses were dished out compared to first doses yesterday.
It comes as yet more data today revealed England’s Covid outbreak remains in retreat, with cases now tumbling to levels not seen since last summer.
Public Health England statistics showed the Covid outbreak shrunk in every age group and region in England last week. Darlington was the only council to register a slight rise in infections.
And the symptom-tracking app run by King’s College London experts estimated Covid cases had halved in a week across the country, with around 1,500 people falling ill every day.
Separate figures also showed almost 94 per cent of over-70s now have Covid antibodies to fight off the virus, highlighting the enormous success of Britain’s vaccination drive.
Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist who leads the KCL study, said: ‘These figures are among the lowest in Europe. Admissions and deaths are also continuing to decline, putting the UK in a similar place to July last year.’
Former Tory cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline the promising data meant the exit from lockdown ‘should be quicker’ because the Prime Minister’s current roadmap dates are ‘deeply pessimistic’.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the Government’s cautious approach saying ‘we have seen what happens when this virus gets going’, and added that the roadmap is designed to achieve an ‘irreversible’ return to something close to normal life.
Pubs and restaurants are set to reopen for outdoor service in England on Monday, with shops and hairdressers also again set to be allowed to welcome customers.
But the next shutdown easing is six weeks away, with foreign holidays not set to be permitted until May 17. The earliest date all restrictions could go under Boris’ plan – except masks and social distancing – is June 21.
Covid cases fell in every age group last week, Public Health England’s report revealed today, and are lowest among over-60s. Everyone in this age group has been offered at least one dose of the Covid vaccine
PHE data also revealed cases fell across every region of England last week. Only Darlington registered a slight rise
The above graph shows Covid antibody levels among over-70s have surged to 94 per cent, after everyone in this age group was offered at least one dose of the vaccine
The number of Britons getting tell-tale Covid symptoms has more than halved in a week, data by ZOE and King’s College London has shown
Department of Health statistics also showed a third of local authorities across the UK had an infection rate below 20 cases per 100,000 residents in the week ending April 3.
These areas were scattered across the country, but a large number were based in the South West, South East, Wales and rural areas of Scotland.
Only the Orkney Islands and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar registered no new infections in the latest week.
On the other hand, the highest infection rate was in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, (240 per 100,000), followed by Corby (142 per 100,000) and Wakefield (107 per 100,000).
It came as Public Health England data revealed 148 of 149 councils in England – 99.3 per cent – saw their Covid cases fall in the seven days to April 4. Only Darlington registered a rise, but this was just nine per cent on last week.
The Covid infection rate also dropped below 100 cases per 100,000 residents in every local authority except Barnsley. The vast majority of areas had case numbers above this level in the darkest days of January.
And when the data was broken down by age groups it showed cases had plunged in all age groups and were now lowest among the over-60s (10.9 per 100,000), who have all been offered at least one dose of the vaccine.
Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at PHE, said: ‘It is encouraging that the data continue to go in the right direction, but we know how quickly the virus can spread.
‘We have come a long way since the start of the year, and the terrible peak we saw during the winter, largely thanks to the country’s grit and determination.
‘Whatever your plans next week, please remember to follow the rules and take up your vaccine when offered one. Let’s not blow it now.’
Sir Iain said the batch of promising statistics indicated the roadmap out of lockdown was already too long, and the Prime Minister should slacken measures ‘more quickly’.
‘I think we should be opening up hospitality inside not just outside next week, or certainly very close thereafter and then other stuff cascading directly as a result of that,’ he told MailOnline.
‘(But) instead of this I think we are sort of in a peculiar place where we are so cautious now that the idea we were following the data is not correct.
‘We are following assumptions and forecasts. We are not following the data and that has meant therefore that our dates are deeply pessimistic because we are following forecasts.’
He added there had been a ‘massive reduction’ in things like hospital occupancy since January while evidence of the impact of the vaccine is increasingly positive.
He said: ‘If you look at all of that, take that as your forecast, where does that take you? And the answer is it takes you to the point where the vaccines are functioning, working, doing their best and there is no evidence of any reason why it should be otherwise so let’s unlock.’
Professor Lawrence Young, a virus expert at Warwick University, told MailOnline it was difficult to ‘tease out’ the effects of the vaccines and the long lockdown on transmission rates – but the data was ‘clearly heading in the right direction’.
‘We are clearly seeing a shift in terms of cases and hospitalisations and deaths, which is really encouraging,’ he told MailOnline.
‘This is an effect from vaccination and the enormously long lockdown too – but the big worry is what happens in June when everything goes back to normal more or less.’
NHS Test and Trace data released today showed the number of people testing positive for Covid fell by a fifth to 29,293 between March 25 and March 31 compared to the previous week
Some 4.8million people were tested at least once during the week — an 18 per cent fall on the previous week — because some schools shut earlier for Easter
Revellers are pictured in Soho, central London in July last year as pubs, bars and restaurants reopened following the first lockdown
When asked whether the UK would soon reach herd immunity – when the virus stops spreading in the community because enough people have antibodies to fight it off – Professor Young said this was unlikely because the vaccine does not give everyone who is injected protection and there are indications immunity may wane over time.
A University College London study today suggested Britain could pass the threshold for herd immunity as soon as Monday next week.
Their data claimed 73.4 per cent of the population could have antibodies to fight off the virus by April 12, a significantly more optimistic outlook than a separate Imperial College London study published last month that suggested just 34 per cent may have antibodies by the end of this month.
The Health Secretary, however, rubbished their forecast and said he had been ‘told by some scientists that we were going to have herd immunity in May and then in June and then after that’.
Asked if he believed the modelling to be ‘exaggerated’, Mr Hancock replied: ‘What I prefer to do is to watch the data. And so we have set out the roadmap, the roadmap is really clear, it is our route back to normal, we are on track to meet the roadmap and that is our goal.
‘Critically, after we take each step like on Monday we are going to be able to go to the pub in the garden.’
Scientists disagree on what the exact herd immunity threshold is but top US medical official Dr Anthony Fauci has previously suggested it could be as high as 90 per cent.
The UK government’s Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance quoted a figure of 60 per cent back in March 2020 but scientists now believe it is much higher than that because the virus is more transmissible than previously thought.
Imperial College’s results formed part of the data considered by SPI-M – a government expert advisory group – whose calculations feed into the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE).
SAGE released modelling in documents this week suggesting that lifting lockdown curbs fully in June could lead to more than a thousand deaths a day this summer and push the NHS to the brink again.
But UCL’s data paints a much more optimistic picture. UCL theoretical neuroscientist Professor Karl Friston told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Over 50 per cent of adults have been vaccinated, around 42 per cent of people have now been exposed to the virus and about 10 per cent have pre-existing immunity.
‘When factoring in the estimated efficacy of vaccination in terms of sterilising immunity, this – according to the model – means about 70 per cent of the population are immune.
‘Based upon contact rates at the beginning of the pandemic and estimated transmission risk, this is nearly at the herd immunity threshold.’
It came as ministers launched a media blitz to reassure the public over the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine today as they insisted the nation’s vaccine drive remained on course to offer all UK adults a jab by the end of July.
Mr Hancock said a decision by UK health chiefs to rule the AstraZeneca jab should not be given to Britons under the age of 30 as experts continue to investigate its link to rare blood clots showed ‘the safety system is working because the regulators can spot even this extremely rare event’.
He said ‘people can take confidence that we have a system that we are extremely careful on the safety front’ but he insisted that ‘when you get the call, get the jab’.
The Government’s vaccine advisory group yesterday ruled that people aged between 18 and 29 should be offered an alternative to AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The UK has ‘more than enough’ Pfizer and Moderna jabs to cover all of the people in that age group who are yet to receive a vaccination – approximately 8.5million – Mr Hancock.
He said ‘all three vaccines that are in use in the UK are safe and they are safe at all ages’ and that there is simply a ‘preference for the under-30s, if they want to have the Pfizer of Moderna jab instead then they can’.
Defending the Government’s approach to lifting rules, he added: ‘Well, I think we have taken the right course in plotting our way to freedom and doing it carefully because we want it to be irreversible.
‘We have seen what happens when this virus gets going and we are seeing it getting going right now on the continent and in other parts of the world, some of the scenes are really appalling.
‘And we want to get out of this safely and irreversibly and that is why we set out the roadmap.’
The latest numbers from the Covid Symptom Study complimented data released by NHS Test and Trace today, which showed the number of people testing positive for Covid fell by a fifth to 29,293 between March 25 and March 31 compared to the previous week.
Some 4.8million people were tested at least once during the week — an 18 per cent fall on the previous week — because some schools shut earlier for Easter.
The fall was a significant drop off compared to the drop seen in the previous week (one per cent) and the week before that (five per cent), suggesting cases are beginning to fall at an increased rate again.
Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London and the lead scientist on the Covid Symptom Study, added: ‘Admissions and deaths are also continuing to decline, putting the UK in a similar place to July last year. It’s unlikely that cases will continue to fall at this pace, but with the vaccinations programme and the weather improving, it’s likely they will remain low.’
The study estimates one in 1,394 people suffered from Covid symptoms last week, with 1,529 people becoming ill per day in England, compared to 316 in Scotland, 79 in Wales and zero in Northern Ireland.
The figures are based on over a million app users reporting their symptoms and so cannot take into account people who get the virus but don’t have symptoms. It also doesn’t include people in hospitals or care homes.
Rates were lowest in the North East of England, with no one developed symptoms, and the East Midlands, where just 92 became ill each day.
They were highest in the Yorkshire and the Humber (454) and London (305), while the East of England was the only other area of the country to see less than a hundred a day (99).
The estimated R rate, measuring the number of people infected by each person with the virus, is close to 0.8 in England and Scotland and just 0.5 in Wales. An R of 1 means the outbreak is neither growing nor shrinking.
SAGE will publish an updated official estimate of the R rate later today. Last week it was thought to be somewhere between 0.8 and 1.
NHS Test and Trace data today showed the number of people testing positive for the virus is beginning to fall at a faster rate again, dropping for the twelfth week in a row.
Positive tests fell from around 37,000 to 29,000 in the weeks March 18 to 24 and March 24 to 31 respectively — a drop of 20.9 per cent.
The fall comes after a period of levelling off, with the most recent data showing falls fell five per cent and one per cent in the two weeks before hand as children returned to the classrooms and testing ballooned.
But test numbers did fall in the most recent week, contributing to the large drop in positive cases. The number of tests fell from 5.8million to 4.8million, as some shool children began their Easter holiday, after peaking at 6.2million in the week from March 11 to March 17.
The positivity rate — a better measure of the pandemic when testing jumps significantly — shows the percentage of tests that were positive in the most recent week has continued to fall.
Just 0.61 per cent of tests were positive in the week ending March 31, down from 0.63 per cent the week before. This figure peaked at 16.7 per cent in the height of the second wave from December 24 to 30.