Scientists warn of 50,000 more Covid deaths as they slam ‘poor decisions’ January 27, 2021 “A legacy of poor decisions” led the the UK to have one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in the world, scientists have said, as they warned of 50,000 further deaths. Britain yesterday passed the “grim milestone” of 100,000 Covid-related fatalities, marking the fifth-highest death toll in the world. It makes the UK the fifth [...]
Boris Johnson to outline lifting restrictions ‘in next few days’ January 26, 2021 Ministers will set out details about reopening the nation after months of closure “over the next few days and weeks,” the Prime Minister has announced. Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Boris Johnson said ministers are currently drawing up plans about “how we want to get things open again”. It comes as the UK [...]
UK passes milestone of 100,000 Covid deaths January 26, 2021 Britain has passed the grim milestone of recording more than 100,000 Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, after reporting a further 1,631 fatalities in the last 24 hours. It makes the UK the fifth nation in the world to reach six figures, following the US, Brazil, India and Mexico. It means Britain now [...]
NHS chief earmarks summer for return to normality January 26, 2021 NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has signalled that the UK could begin to see a return to normality by the summer if plans to ramp up the nation’s vaccination programme go to plan. Teachers and police could be fast-tracked for the Covid vaccine as early as mid-February, the NHS boss said. Ministers have set [...]
Exclusive: Test and Trace slammed for tweaking counting method to boost stats January 26, 2021 The Government’s Covid-19 Test and Trace programme has come under sharp criticism for tweaking its method of counting coronavirus contacts to boost figures. The beleaguered contact tracing system last week changed its methodology so that Covid-19 contacts can be counted multiple times, City A.M. can reveal. Previously, people who had been in contact with any [...]
China ‘withheld information’ about coronavirus in outbreak of pandemic January 26, 2021 China “withheld crucial information” about coronavirus from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the early days of the pandemic, according to leaked audio recordings. George Gao, director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, held vital information about the novel virus for almost two weeks before China announced Covid-19’s genomic sequence, according to [...]
Exclusive: NHS drops ‘mass vaccination centre’ term over scare-mongering concerns January 25, 2021 The NHS has dropped the term “mass vaccination centre” to describe its large-scale vaccine hubs over fears it will alienate the public. NHS England will instead describe its 50 major vaccine hubs as “NHS vaccine centres”, City A.M. can reveal. A spokesperson for NHS England said the shift was to avoid members of the public [...]
Matt Hancock announces ‘enhanced contact tracing’ for Covid mutation infections January 25, 2021 The UK has launched an “enhanced” contact tracing system for people infected with any of the new coronavirus variants, Matt Hancock announced today. All those found infected with the South African coronavirus variant in UK have been subject to enhanced scrutiny, the health secretary announced, as Britain attempts to curb the spread of new mutations. [...]
Xi Jinping warns against ‘new Cold War’ January 25, 2021 Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned against stoking a “new Cold War”, after Beijing and Washington last week launched tit-for-tat sanctions on each other’s top officials. Speaking at this year’s Digital Davos, Xi attacked both former US President Donald Trump and his White House successor, Joe Biden, warning that confrontation “will always end up harming [...]
Moderna to trial new Covid vaccine for South African mutation January 25, 2021 Moderna is set to trial its new Covid-19 vaccine specially designed to tackle a new coronavirus strain that first emerged in South Africa, the company announced today. The US pharmaceutical firm said laboratory tests showed its current vaccine appears to work against the UK Covid variant first identified in Kent. However, it warned that the [...]
