20/03/20 COVID-19 Global News update

Britain is in talks to buy a coronavirus antibody test that could be a game changer if it works.

Ministers are being urged to release hundreds of inmates on short sentences in an effort to slim the prison population and aid the government’s efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak. It comes after a prisoner tested positive for covid-19 at HMP Manchester earlier this week, and campaigners warned the virus could “spread like wildfire” if it were to infiltrate Britain’s prisons.

Churches and cathedrals in England are planning to stream services after being instructed to close for three months because of coronavirus. Durham Cathedral plans to post some services online and live stream others.

Trains operators across Britain will gradually reduce services from Monday, amid falling demand because of the coronavirus pandemic. The government said it had agreed the plan with the rail industry to reflect the fall in passenger numbers, while keeping vital services running.

Letters are being sent to more than 65,000 retired doctors and nurses asking them to return to the NHS to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Senior officials say the ex-employees are needed to boost frontline services.

The number of people in the United Kingdom who have died after contracting the coronavirus rose to 144, up 40% in a day, the health ministry said on Thursday. The number of positive cases increased by 643, or 25%, to 3,269.

The Isle of Man has recorded its first case of coronavirus, the Manx government has confirmed. The person had recently returned from a trip to Spain, a spokesman said.

Some of the world’s largest hotel chains are in talks with the government about providing space for NHS workers as the UK battles the coronavirus outbreak. One group, Best Western Great Britain, is offering 15,000 hotel bedrooms and over 1,000 meeting rooms to help the NHS and local authorities.

Local authorities will get more than half of a £2.9bn pot of emergency funding to sort out – at least for now – the long-running problem of elderly and vulnerable people stuck in hospital because the social care they need is not available.

A massive effort is under way to develop a UK vaccine for coronavirus within months and make it available to save lives before the end of the year.

BT, owner of UK mobile operator EE, is in talks with the government about using its phone location and usage data to monitor whether coronavirus limitation measures such as asking the public to stay at home are working.

Boris Johnson has raised the prospect of mass testing for coronavirus and and social distancing allowing the UK to return to some form of normality by the summer, while stressing that tougher measures such as locking down cities remained a possibility.

Russian scientists have begun testing prototypes of potential vaccines against the new coronavirus on animals in a laboratory in Siberia, Russia’s consumer health regulator said on Friday.

The coronavirus outbreak dealt a blow to NASA’s plans to return Americans to the moon by 2024, as the space agency chief on Thursday ordered the temporary closure of two rocket production facilities after an employee tested positive for the respiratory illness.

Qatar’s largest labour camp for migrant workers has become a virtual prison and is in total lockdown after hundreds of construction workers became infected with Covid-19.

Thailand reported 50 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 322, a health official said on Friday, with the majority located in Bangkok, the capital.

Australia on Friday delayed its federal budget by five months to October saying the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to make sensible economic forecasts, as it prepared to dramatically expand its stimulus spending to avoid recession.

The world’s richest nations poured unprecedented aid into the global economy on Thursday as coronavirus cases ballooned in the new epicentre Europe, with the number of deaths in Italy outstripping those in mainland China, where the virus originated.

The number of registered coronavirus infections in Mexico rose on Thursday to 164 from 118 a day earlier, a senior health ministry official told a news conference.

Mainland China reported zero locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus for the second straight day, while the daily tally for infections involving travellers arriving in the country surged to a new record.

The Spanish government on Thursday ordered the closure of all the country’s hotels and promised to implement special measures in nursing homes after a surge in the country’s coronavirus cases and deaths.

A plane carrying the Olympic torch from Greece will arrive on Friday on Japan’s northwestern coast ravaged by a 2011 tsunami, but the welcome ceremony will have no spectators, amid worries that the Games could be cancelled over a coronavirus pandemic.

Air Canada is set to lay off more than 5,100 members of its cabin crews because of a decline in flights following the coronavirus outbreak, CBC News reported late on Thursday.

A worldwide credit crunch triggered by the coronavirus will set in motion a wave of corporate bankruptcies that will make the global financial crisis look like “child’s play”, investors have warned.

The chancellor is set to announce an employment and wage subsidy package to try to protect millions of jobs. Talks went on into the night with business groups and union leaders, who urged the government to help pay wages amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Global banks are hoping to keep their London trading floors open amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic and are confident that traders would be designated “key workers” if the capital is placed on formal lockdown.

Bentley will stop car production at its British factory from the end of Friday for four weeks over the coronavirus outbreak, one of the final automakers in Britain to announce such plans.

British Airways pilots will face a 50% pay cut to their basic salary for April and May, as the airline seeks to reduce its cost to try survive the coronavirus crisis.

Guidance to help with running your charity during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The CMA is very conscious of concerns that competition law enforcement could impede necessary cooperation between businesses to deal with the current crisis and ensure security of supplies of essential products and services, such as groceries.

Guidance about maintaining educational provision for schools, colleges and local authorities.