COVID 19 Update 11th August 2020

Brunei and Malaysia added to travel corridor list

Passengers arriving to England from Brunei and Malaysia will no longer need to self-isolate, as long as they haven’t been in, or transited through, any other non-exempt countries in the 14 days preceding their arrival.

BEIS Webinars

The Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy are running a series of webinars on various COVID-19 support schemes:

• Extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and flexible furloughing – Register here

• Wednesday 12 August, 14:15 – 15:15
• Thursday 13 August, 09:45 – 10:45
• Friday 14 August, 14:15 – 15:15

• Eat Out to Help Out Scheme – Register here.
• Wednesday 12 August, 15:45 – 16:40

• COVID-19 Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, Universal Credit and Child Benefit – Register here.

• Tuesday 18 August, 14:15 – 15:00
• Wednesday 19 August, 15:45 – 16:30
• Thursday 20 August, 11:15 – 12:00
• Friday 21 August, 09:45 – 10:30

• COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme – Register here.
• Tuesday 20 August, 12:45 – 13:30

Updated Visa Guidance

The Home Office has updated its visa guidance for people coming to the UK via the Global Talent, Start-Up and Innovator visa routes. If an endorsement has expired because the person has not been able to travel to the UK, they may still be eligible for a visa.

Updated Q&A on Rural Development Programme for England – Growth Programme Funding

DEFRA & MHCLG have updated their Q&A to provide guidance if there are COVID-related issues associated with completing projects or submitting bids as part of the Round 3 call.

Industry Updates

• Costa Cruises is planning to restart its operations from Italian ports gradually from 6 September.  
• P&O cruises has extended their pause of operations until 12 November 2020 and cancelled a selection of longer term cruises until 31 March 2021.
• Seabourn, has announced that it will cancel upcoming voyages for three cruise ships in its fleet as a part of its pause in global ship operations. The announcement applies to Seabourn Encore, Seabourn Ovation, and Seabourn Sojourn with each ship having a different “effective through” date.

Situation Update 11 August 2020

• To see the number of cases of COVID-19 in England and the UK visit the UK COVID-19 dashboard – https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
• To see the number of cases globally see the World Health Organisation dashboard – https://covid19.who.int/

The updated weekly data  (up to Sunday 9 August) for the Job Retention Scheme and the Eat Out to Hep Out Scheme is also available here.