COVID-19 Updates
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UK coronavirus: Wales to prioritise reopening schools; M&S sandwich supplier closes factory after outbreak – as it happened
That’s all from the UK blog today, as always you can continue reading over on our global coronavirus blog after Italy records its biggest daily infection rise since May. Thanks…
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Outsourcing firms miss 46% of Covid contacts in England’s worst-hit areas
Outsourcing companies leading the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infection rates in England, official figures…
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US coronavirus stimulus: in the end, it’s Americans who must pay for it
The US today not only looks ill, but dead broke. To offset the pandemic-induced economic downturn, the US Federal Reserve and Congress have marshalled staggering sums of stimulus spending, out…
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Coronavirus in Europe: dozens of schools report infections in Berlin
Coronavirus cases have been reported by at least 41 schools in Berlin, barely two weeks after the German capital’s 825 schools reopened. Cases are rising across Europe, including in Spain,…
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Back Ofqual or I quit, chair of regulator told Gavin Williamson
The chair of Ofqual threatened to quit this week unless Gavin Williamson publicly backed the exams regulator and admitted it was behind the U-turn that salvaged millions of student grades,…
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Birmingham: 1m asked to restrict home visitors to prevent new lockdown
More than a million people in Birmingham will be advised to limit the number of people entering their homes to two as part of voluntary restrictions to stave off a…
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Irish minister resigns over golf dinner that flouted Covid-19 rules
Irish politics has been plunged into crisis after a parliamentary golf club dinner held in violation of the country’s coronavirus social distancing rules forced the resignation of a minister and…
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Covid: UK’s R value may be above 1 for first time on record
The R value for the UK may have risen above 1.0 for the first time since weekly reporting of data began. The figure reflects the average number of people a…
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Face masks give facial recognition software an identity crisis
It is an increasingly common modern annoyance: arriving at the front of the queue to pay in a shop, pulling out a smartphone for a hygienic contact-free payment, and staring…