diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 98ccce590..79b9d6f4d 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-## 1.2.5 (in progress)
+## 1.2.6 (in progress)
+
+## 1.2.5 (01 January 2021)
 - Joint calling for RNA-seq variant calling requires setting `jointcaller` to bring it in line
   with the configuration options for variant calling.
 - Allow pre-aligned BAMs and gVCFs for RNA-seq joint variant calling. Thanks to @WimSpree for the
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f33595a25..2063e025a 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 import setuptools
 
-VERSION = '1.2.4'
+VERSION = '1.2.5'
 
 # add bcbio version number and git commit hash of the current revision to version.py
 try: