The Health Secretary said the strain was still spreading as a Public Health England report revealed confirmed cases have doubled in a week to 6,959 from 3,535 last Thursday.
Paul Charles, chief executive at The PC Agency, also included Grenada, Morocco and Finland as green on his unofficial traffic light system based on current infection rates.
Medical director of Public Health England Dr Yvonne Doyle said the rate of hospital admission remains low
Blackburn with Darwen, Kirklees and Bedford are the only areas of the eight hotspots to see cases rise
Burnley has even seen a fall in the average number of cases, based on the most recent Government data
Outbreaks now appear to be flat in the other four areas Bolton, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside
Paul Charles, chief executive at The PC Agency said Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada should be green listed
Data based on a complex raft of information including test rates per 100,000 and ability to check for variants
Comes as officials in the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands revealed they want to make UK s green list
UK officials have not made public benchmark number of positive tests per 100,000 country must not breach
Royal Blackburn Hospital A TRADE union is calling for a public review of plans to centralise the analysis of blood samples in one location. Currently the work is done at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust; Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. But Unite wants a wider consultation on the scheme being considered by the Lancashire and South Cumbria Pathology Collaboration before any changes. Its call came as its blood analyst members started industrial action at the East Lancashire Trust over a pay and regrading dispute.