UK passes 100,000 COVID deaths, with many more to come
The death toll in Britain from the coronavirus pandemic passed 100,000 people on Tuesday as the government battled to speed up vaccination delivery and keep variants of the virus at bay.
The death toll in Britain from the coronavirus pandemic passed 100,000 people on Tuesday as the government battled to speed up vaccination delivery and keep variants of the virus at bay.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday raised its forecast for global economic growth in 2021 and said the coronavirus-triggered downturn last year - the biggest peacetime contraction since the Great Depression - would be nearly a full percentage point less severe than expected.
The British government will on Wednesday announce plans for limited hotel quarantine for Britons returning from 30 high-risk countries covered by a travel ban, the Times reported on Wednesday.
Juries in criminal trials in England and Wales should be cut from 12 to seven members to help tackle a backlog of more than 54,000 cases that has rapidly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, the opposition Labour Party said on Tuesday.
Freight volumes moving between the United Kingdom and the European Union were down 38% in the third week of January compared with the same week a year ago, real-time truck movement data shows.
Unmarried mothers in British-ruled Northern Ireland suffered cruel treatment in homes run by the Protestant and Catholic Churches, a report found on Tuesday, confirming that abuse for which Ireland apologized earlier this month was rife on both sides of the border.
The bosses of airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet criticised on Tuesday a possible plan for mandatory quarantine in hotels for some or all arrivals to Britain and called for a support package.
AstraZeneca has offered to bring forward some deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union while the bloc has asked the British drugmaker if it can divert doses from the UK to make up for a shortfall in supplies, European officials told Reuters.
British stocks ended higher on Tuesday after drugmaker AstraZeneca denied reports that its COVID-19 vaccine was less effective in the elderly population, while Indivior surged after its former parent withdrew a $1.4 billion legal claim.
British retail sales have suffered their most widespread annual drop since May this month, according to a survey published on Tuesday which suggests that the latest lockdown is taking a heavy toll on many shops.