Coronavirus: London’s Excel centre set to open 500 hospital beds next week March 26, 2020 A temporary hospital at East London’s Excel centre will have 500 beds open next week for coronavirus patients. Health secretary Matt Hancock announced on Tuesday that the Excel centre would be turned into the NHS Nightingale Hospital, to deal with the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, and will have 4,000 beds. An official Downing Street [...]
Sadiq Khan calls coronavirus rental protections ‘inadequate’ March 25, 2020 Sadiq Khan has demanded for more support to be given to the capital’s renters during the coronavirus crisis in an escalation of tensions between the government and City Hall. Boris Johnson rolled out protections for renters last week, including a three-month mortgage holiday for homeowners, increases to the housing allowance and measures to prevent landlords [...]
Coronavirus: Bring back retired Tube drivers, says Tory mayoral candidate March 25, 2020 Almost 150 recently retired Tube drivers should be brought back to reduce rush hour overcrowding during the coronavirus crisis, according to Tory mayoral hopeful Shaun Bailey. Bailey, a London Assembly member, said 139 drivers could be brought back to increase the number of Tube services, similar to what the NHS has done with retired doctors [...]
Coronavirus: London City Airport suspends all flights March 25, 2020 London City Airport has suspended all flights in and out of the airport for the foreseeable future. The airport will stop all commercial and private flights from this evening due to the fallout from the coronavirus. The airport only had a handful of flights today, with numbers sharply decreasing due to the travel restrictions imposed [...]
UK coronavirus home testing kits to be made available ‘within days’ March 25, 2020 Coronavirus home testing kits will be made available in the UK within a matter of days, rather than weeks or months, according to health officials. Professor Sharon Peacock, director of the National Infection Service, told the science and technology committee that 3.5m tests had been bought and would be available “within days”. The coronavirus kits [...]
Coronavirus: City of London Corporation defers rent payments for tenants March 25, 2020 The City of London Corporation is deferring this quarter’s rental payments for commercial tenants worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The Corporation, a major landlord in the Square Mile and beyond, is deferring rent payments for the March quarter for all retail, hospitality, small office, and serviced office tenants. Supermarkets, banks, pharmacies and building societies [...]
21-year-old woman reportedly dies from coronavirus in UK March 25, 2020 A 21-year-old woman is reportedly the youngest person with no pre-existing medical conditions to have died after contracting coronavirus in the UK. Chloe Middleton, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, is believed to have died on 21 March. In a Facebook post her mother, Diane Middleton, said: “To all the people out there that thinks it’s just [...]
One-third of Tube staff off sick as Underground trains still packed March 25, 2020 Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged more Londoners to stay at home today amid the coronavirus lockdown as he repeated his call for the government to ban construction work in the capital. Khan warned London’s Tube and bus transport network is approaching breaking point, with almost a third of Transport for London (TfL) workers off sick [...]
Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population, according to experts March 25, 2020 The coronavirus may have already infected half of the population in the UK, according to researchers at the University of Oxford. The new model suggests the coronavirus was circulating in the UK by mid-January, approximately two weeks before the first reported case and a month before the first death. The study into the infection rate [...]
Construction on 22 Bishopsgate stops due to coronavirus March 24, 2020 Construction workers on the site of upcoming City skyscraper 22 Bishopsgate have downed tools today in response to the latest coronavirus restrictions. Multiplex, the contractor building the new Square Mile high rise, shut all its work sites today, after Boris Johnson implemented an effective three-week lockdown last night. The government said open air construction could [...]