Less than half of small businesses will ask staff to return to the office full-time May 25, 2021 Fewer than one in two of small business owners plan to advise their staff to return to the office after 21 June, when government restrictions on home working will be lifted, according to new survey results. Financial services company Hitachi Capital Business Finance polled over a thousand UK-based small business owners to find out how [...]
Covid-19: Government warns against travel to or from Indian variant hotspot Hounslow May 25, 2021 Covid-19: Government warns against travel to or from Indian variant hotspot Hounslow
Competition watchdog to probe Covid-19 vaccine maker AstraZeneca over £27.5bn US drug deal May 25, 2021 The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will probe Covid-19 vaccine maker AstraZeneca's £27.5bn megadeal to buy a US drug company.
Wagamama owner Restaurant Group sees sales rebound as dining returns May 25, 2021 Wagamama owner Restaurant Group said sales were recovering well as Brits dined after the lifting of lockdown restrictions. The group, which has around 350 sites trading since the resumption of indoor dining, said delivery services were much higher before Covid curbs were eased. Some 130 of its Wagamama sites traded at 85 per cent of [...]
Super sniffers: Trained dogs could spot Covid with 94 per cent accuracy May 24, 2021 Trained dogs can detect the smell of Covid-19 with up to 94 per cent accuracy, new research has suggested, which could be a major breakthrough in testing. The study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), has not yet been peer-reviewed but showed dogs were able to sniff out samples from people who [...]
City police opened 50 per cent more Covid loan fraud probes in February May 24, 2021 City of London police commenced 50 per cent more investigation into fraud connected to the government’s Bounce Back Loan scheme (BBLs) in February than the prior month. Police opened 26 such probes in February, up from 17 in January, international law firm RPC said. It opened a further 28 in March. Back in October the [...]
Health officials investigate Yorkshire triple Covid-19 variant May 22, 2021 Health officials are investigating a new ‘triple’ variant of Covid-19 that has been identified in Yorkshire. However, they told the public not to be alarmed, as there is no evidence that existing vaccines will not be effective against the variant. So far 49 cases of the variant have been identified, Public Health England said, mainly [...]
More countries could be added to travel ‘green list’ soon, says Shapps May 22, 2021 Grant Shapps has hinted that other countries will be added to the UK’s travel “green list” soon, urging people to “be a little patient” in the meantime. “I don’t think people have a very long time to wait before other countries are able to join the green list”, he said in an interview with the [...]
Surge testing to be rolled out in West London after Indian variant identified May 22, 2021 Additional Covid-19 testing will begin in parts of West London in the coming days after cases of the so-called “Indian” variant of the disease was identified. Targeted settings and postcodes within Harrow, Ealing, Hillingdon and Brent will be subject to extra testing. Those with confirmed cases of the disease are isolating, with health workers in [...]
Government and Covid test supplier Novacyt row over £150m PCR contract May 21, 2021 A major supplier of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Covid-19 testing kits is in dispute with the government over a £150 million contract. Novacyt developed one of the UK’s first coronavirus testing kits in January 2020, subsequently working alongside AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Cambridge in April last year. It led to the signing of [...]