How does the Government decide the traffic lights?
📌 The percentage of a country’s population that have been vaccinated
📌 The rate of infection
📌 The prevalence of variants of concern
📌 The country’s access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing
✅ Which countries are currently green?
📌 Australia
📌 Brunei
📌 Falkland Islands
📌 Faroe Islands
📌 Gibraltar
📌 Iceland
📌 Israel and Jerusalem
📌 New Zealand
📌 Singapore
📌 South George and the South Sandwich Islands
📌 St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
⁉️ So will any more countries go green this week?
❌ Nobody is expecting a bumper green list update.
🚦 But, according to the Government’s own traffic lights criteria there are a number of destinations that should at least be on the watchlist for promotion to ‘green’ this week
🇲🇹 Malta
Cases per 100,000: 1.81
Second doses given: 64.5%
There were only eight cases of Covid-19 reported over the last week (that’s 1.8 per 100,000 over a week) and 64.5% of the population has been double jabbed. The UK, by comparison, is at 56.97% of adults with two doses
🇺🇸USA
Cases per 100,000: 24.13
Second doses given: 55.53%
Based on data, the USA should go green.
Dr Anthony Fauci says: “'I think once they get more and more people vaccinated...the UK is going to be in a very favourable position by the time we get to the end of the summer”
🇭🇷 Croatia
Cases per 100,000: 14.86
Second doses given: 25.2%
Croatia’s second wave is over. Yesterday, only 58 people in Croatia tested positive for Covid-19. The seven-day count is 610 cases, amounting to 14.86 per 100,000 – a fraction of the UK’s current infection rate
🇮🇹 Italy
Cases per 100,000: 13.4
Second doses given: 29.2%
Italy's weekly Covid-19 case rate is 13.4 per 100,000, considerably lower than that of the UK. The vaccination drive is picking up pace, too, with almost 30% of the population having received both doses of the jab
🇪🇸 Balearic Islands
Cases per 100,000: 19
Second doses given: 25.5%
The islands will be considered independently of the mainland, meaning the Balearics should be a strong contender for ‘green’ status. Cases are at 19 per 100,000 and a quarter of the population is double-jabbed
🏴 "The people in power at the moment, there's a tremendous responsibility on their heads because it is they who will decide whether the union survives" | @GordonBrown
🏴 "Right now, Boris Johnson is very clearly saying, no, not for now and it's unclear whether he's ever going to change his stance" | @benrileysmith
🏴@benrileysmith asked Michael Gove whether there was "any circumstance" in which Boris Johnson would approve a Scottish independence referendum before the May 2024 election.