Britain's covid cases rise 8. 7% to 1,882 compared with last sunday

* 1,882 PEOPLE HAVE TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID-19 - A 8.7% RISE ON LAST SUNDAY   * 10 FATALITIES RECORDED TODAY 43% HIGHER THAN SEVEN DEATHS ON THIS DAY LAST WEEK  * COMES AS COVID VARIANT

WREAKS HAVOC IN INDIA, WITH 77 CASES IN THE UK SO FAR A further 1,882 people have tested positive for Covid-19 - an 8.7 per cent rise on last Sunday. And Britain's daily death toll has

increased too, with the 10 fatalities recorded today compared to seven deaths on this day last week. It comes as the Government confirmed more than 9.9 million people in the UK have now

received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Meanwhile nearly 33 million have had their first dose as the UK's vaccination programme continues. Today's case total - a marked increase

on the 1,730 positive tests reported on this day last week - comes as a faster-transmitting Covid variant wreaks havoc in India. It also marks the first Sunday since outdoor pubs, bars and

restaurants can reopen their doors. Experts believe the Indian variant not only speeds up transmission, but also features an 'escape mutation' which could possibly impact on the

effectiveness of vaccines.    The latest figures show the rollout of Covid vaccines to new patients has slowed to a crawl in comparison to how it performed in March.  An average of 91,000

people are getting their first dose each day now after the rollout peaked at just over 500,000 per day in the middle of last month.  A bottleneck in supplies and a need to give second jabs

to the millions of people who got their first dose in January has now meant the number of patients receiving their first dose of the vaccine is lower this month compared to last month. 

Figures from the NHS show that 139,445 people got their first vaccine dose on Saturday, which was up from just 69,223 last Sunday but significantly lower than the one-day record of 614,930

on March 19.  It comes after medical chiefs said in a warning on March 17 that, for four weeks or more, 'volumes for first doses will be significantly constrained'.  In other

coronavirus news today: * Huge crowds of maskless youngsters were pictured crammed into queue for Harrods on first weekend of shops reopening * Hospitality bosses demand Boris Johnson

confirms May 17 date for reopening indoors as minister warns it is 'too early' to make final decision * Drug-maker behind AstraZeneca say they will have a vaccine to combat the

South African Covid variant ready by the end of the year  It comes as the Mail on Sunday revealed confirmed UK cases of the Indian variant of have doubled in the past week. Professor Paul

Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, analysed publicly available information on new variant numbers last Saturday and again yesterday and found that the number of

genetically-confirmed Indian strain cases had risen in a week from 79 to 160. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE INDIA VARIANT?  Real name: B.1.617 When and where was it discovered? The variant was

first reported as being of concern by the Indian government in late March. The first cases appear to date back to October 2020.  What mutations does it have? The two main mutations are named

E484Q and L452R, which scientists suspect can help it to transmit faster and to get past immune cells made in response to older variants. Those mutations are routinely not found on other

variants monitored by Public Health England. How many people in the UK have been infected with it? 77 people so far, according to a report published on April 15. Their locations are unknown.

Because only around a quarter of identified Covid cases undergo genomic sequencing to identify the strain, he feared the true figure was at least 400. However, member of the Joint Committee

on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Professor Adam Finn yesterday insisted the India variant is unlikely to set lockdown easing back to 'square one' because immunity from

vaccines 'won't just disappear'. He said he expected a 'gradual erosion' of vaccine protection as the virus evolves - but he said it was but not enough to

'scupper' the Prime Minister's road map, as one leading scientist had predicted.  Boris Johnson plans to remove all legal limits on social contact by June 21 - after

non-essential retail shops and outdoor pubs and bars reopened this week. The government also plans to use a 'traffic light' system for travel from May 17, in which countries to be

classed as either green, amber or red - depending on the threat they pose of fuelling the pandemic.  But Nicola Sturgeon today lashed out at the plan, warning 'lax' rules could

allow variants to spread. The Scottish First Minister said allowing people to go abroad for non-essential reasons 'poses a risk' because it is impossible to know where a dangerous

mutant strain might emerge. She said she is pushing the UK government to take a harder line, pointing out that alongside the ban on foreign arrivals, Scotland currently requires all British

residents returning from overseas to self-isolate in a quarantine hotel. In England the restrictions only apply to a 'red list'. Her comments came as the PM prepares to travel to

India, where a new variant of coronavirus has been identified. Ms Sturgeon, speaking on the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme on Sky News, acknowledged that the India strain was currently

classed as a 'variant of interest' rather than a variant of concern'. But she said: 'I think the thing we have got to recognise about Covid is that it is mutating and we

are seeing new variants appear in different parts of the world. 'We don't know where the variants of real concern are going to come from, which is why an approach to travel that

tries to categorise risk, with some countries categorised as red-list countries and other countries deemed to be safer, I think poses a risk. 'Because none of us know right now where

the next variant that might be really problematic is going to occur.'  Ms Sturgeon today insisted: 'We have got to be very careful as we continue to suppress things at home, we

don't allow it to be reseeded with more dangerous variants from elsewhere.' She insisted that last summer Scotland had 'almost eliminated the strains that were

circulating'. RELATED ARTICLES JUST EIGHT COUNTRIES SET FOR 'GREEN' TRAVEL LIST  Only eight countries are set to feature on the Government's green travel list when the

ban on overseas holidays lifts on May 17. The British overseas territory of Gibraltar, along with Israel, Iceland and the US, will be among the nations and territories on the safe list,

according to industry modelling reported by the Telegraph. The research was carried out by Robert Boyle - the former strategy chief at British Airways. It also reveals that nearly all of

Europe is either on the Government's 'amber' list, where arrivals must go into self-isolation for ten days, or the red list - where arrivals have to quarantine in hotels at a

cost of £1,750. According to the new research, the other countries which will reportedly be on the green list are Malta, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Both Australia and New Zealand

are currently closed to foreign arrivals while Iceland, Gibraltar, Israel, Malta and the United States all have heavy restrictions in place which ban holidaymakers travelling to the

countries. But she said 'we probably opened up international travel too quickly, so we allowed the virus to reseed into our domestic population'. Ms Sturgeon added: 'I think

it is important we try as hard as we can to avoid that in the weeks and months ahead.' She accepted that such an approach is 'really difficult for the aviation sector, airports,

tourism' – saying theses businesses need to be supported. But she was clear: 'The big risk that we face, not just in Scotland but across the UK right now is the importation of new

variants of the virus, variants that might be faster spreading, that might be more severe and crucially variants that might undermine the efficacy of the vaccine. 'So we've got to

be very careful about that. 'Which is why I think one of the restrictions we're all going to have to live with for longer is a restriction on international travel. 'In

Scotland we insist that people quarantine in managed isolation wherever in the world they come from if they come directly into Scotland, and we continue to try to persuade the UK Government

to take a similar approach. 'Because we mustn't allow the progress we are making domestically to be undermined by too lax a position on international travel. 'It is very

difficult for the sector and it is important governments support it as we try to continue to protect ourselves against the virus.' Environment Secretary George Eustice said it is

'appropriate' for Mr Johnson to go ahead with a visit to India later this month, insisting steps will be taken to ensure it is 'Covid secure'. But the UK government is

reviewing whether India should be added to the UK's travel red list as cases soar, driven by a new variant that has already arrived in Britain. Mr Eustice told the BBC's Andrew

Marr that the travel red list is kept under 'constant review' - but gave no indication that guidance might be changed. Scientists fear that India's brutal second wave of Covid

is being driven by a double-mutated version of the virus that makes vaccines less effective and the disease more infectious. Danny Altmann, a professor of infectious disease at Imperial

College London, has warned that the country should immediately be added to the travel red list to protect Britons from the variant. But on Sunday, Mr Eustice said: 'We're allowing

people in from India provided they have had a pre-departure test, provided they then quarantine - albeit not in a hotel or a designated facility, but quarantine at home - and then have a

test at two and eight days.  'But we keep this under regular review. We take the advice of the scientific experts on this. If the advice is we should change that and move to the red

list we would.'  Pictures today showed Britons basking in glorious sunshine with temperatures set to hit 62F - as people make the most of their new-found freedoms with the easing of

coronavirus restrictions. Sunseekers in England and Wales had plenty of blue skies this morning at the start of a mini-heatwave as they decided to spend Sunday outdoors. Hundreds were seen

turning up to a popular car boot sales on grassy fields at the Skylark Garden Centre in Cambridgeshire and at Lyndhurst in the New Forest. Others got back enjoying outdoors sports including

rowing on the River Avon in Warwickshire and horse riding on the Dorset coast. It comes after people in England enjoyed their first weekend nights out since restrictions were eased on beer

gardens and outdoor dining. Restaurants and pubs across the country were booked with some seeing their busiest day of trading in years on Friday.  Police officers were out in force across

London and other cities to keep an eye on al-fresco drinkers, and even shut off Primrose Hill to avoid groups congregating for late-night parties. The Met Office has warned that there is a

risk of rain in north west England and over Scotland as a band of wet weather moves in from the Atlantic but the outlook otherwise has proven to be mainly fine.