01/06/20 COVID-19 Global News Update

Officials in the UK Treasury are “probably” considering whether to change the Bank of England’s inflation-targeting mandate due to the massive economic shock imparted by the coronavirus crisis, according to a former minister.

A borrower's credit rating should be marked if they take a further mortgage holiday, the Nationwide has said. Lenders look a somebody's credit rating when deciding whether to agree to a fresh loan or contract and the interest rate they will charge.

Five new drugs are to be trialled in 30 hospitals across the country in the race to find a treatment for Covid-19, it has emerged.

The "test, trace, protect" system is launching in Wales on Monday. It will see the close contacts of people who have tested positive for coronavirus asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

MPs return to Westminster on Tuesday and while some can't wait others say it is far too early and are angry about the end of working from home.

The foreign secretary admitted that the government's five-level, colour-coded alert system was not yet at level three.

The government claims to have exceeded its goal of a 200,000 daily test capacity by the end of May.

The First Minister Arlene Foster has said that NI could have contact tracing for "quite some time, possibly even up to two years". She was speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Programme on Sunday.

Over 2m people in England who have been “shielding” from the coronavirus pandemic due to being deemed extremely vulnerable will be allowed outside for the first time in 10 weeks from Monday.

England risks losing control of the coronavirus pandemic again because it is starting to lift its lockdown without a fully operational track and trace programme in place, senior scientific advisers warned on Saturday.

Britons believe they will be much more united after the country has recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, a survey has found.

Relaxing lockdown is a risk because levels of the coronavirus are still at "very high" levels, one of the government's top science advisers says. Prof John Edmunds said it was a "political decision" to lift lockdown and that "many" scientists would wait.

China reported the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in nearly three weeks with 16 new infections discovered on May 31, as the number of so-called imported cases jumped in southwestern Sichuan province.

The number of overnight stays by tourists in Portugal dropped 98.3% to nearly 71,000 last month from the previous year, showing the sector’s collapse as lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus grounded flights and kept visitors away.