Coronavirus news UK: Sunak urged to consider four-day week to boost economy, as Spain says will not quarantine UK visitors
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Your support makes all the difference.The UK’s chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was urged to consider introducing a four-day working week to as a means of overhauling the British economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas are among the signatories of a letter sent to Mr Sunak and seen by The Independent arguing for reducing working hours to provide greater opportunities amid growing levels of unemployment, borrowing an idea from New Zealand’s popular prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Spain has decided to accept UK travellers from Sunday without a retaliatory two-week quarantine, while Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, has said a review of the current two-metre social distancing rule will be finishing “shortly” after Boris Johnson told the public to “watch this space”.
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Parents at 'wit's end' over school closures
Campaigners have warned parents are at their “wits’ end” over the prospect of juggling childcare and work with schools remaining closed until September, and mothers are hardest hit, our women's correspondent Maya Oppenheim reports.
Women with children facing burnout due to taking on the bulk of childcare and homeschooling during lockdown voiced anger that pubs, shops and restaurants were reopening while schools, nurseries and childcare providers stayed shut.
South Africa reports nearly 4,000 new cases as it relaxes lockdown
South Africa is reporting nearly 4,000 new Covid-19 cases as the country continues to loosen lockdown measures under economic pressure.
Casinos, beauty salons and sit-down restaurant service are among the latest permitted activities as Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, warned citizens this week the fight against the coronavirus is a personal responsibility.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
Zimbabwe's health minister charged over coronavirus contract case
The Zimbabwean health minister has been charged in a case looking at government contracts awarded during the coronavirus pandemic.
Obadiah Moyo appeared in court on Saturday over allegations he illegally handed a contract for Covid-19 testing kits, drugs and personal protective equipment to a shadowy company.
Read the full report here:
White House to hold 4th July celebrations
Celebrations for the 4th of July at the White House will go ahead this year, despite concerns from US lawmakers about the large number of people who may gather at the event amid the coronavirus pandemic, Kate Ng writes.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said: “The American people have shown tremendous courage and spirit in the fight against this global pandemic just as our forefathers did in the fight to secure our independence, and both deserve celebration on America’s birthday this year.”
US abandons trial of anti-malarial drug touted and supposedly taken by Trump
The US National Institutes of Health has halted clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalised Covid-19 patients, having found to provide no benefit - or harm - to patients.
The US Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus on Monday.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organisation also announced it would halt its vast multi-country trial after new data and studies showed no benefit.
Donald Trump had promoted the drug as a potential treatment, saying in March it could turn out to be "one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" when used in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin.
Last month, he claimed he was taking a course of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative after two White House aides tested positive for coronavirus.
Dengue fever on the rise in South East Asia amid lockdown
The global lockdown may have helped blunt the Covid-19 pandemic but, across South East Asia, it appears to have spurred another deadly disease: dengue fever.
The mosquito-carried virus – which causes crushing joint pain – has skyrocketed in the continent’s tropical regions where it is most common.
Singapore has reported a record 165 cases a day in the second week of June, while, in Indonesia, there have been some 64,251 cases this year – a 60 per cent jump on the same time in 2019. Bali, the popular tourist destination, has almost 9,000 infections. Malaysia, too, is reported to be suffering.
Colin Drury has this report.
Florida records over 4,000 new cases of Covid-19 in one day after early emergence from lockdown
The Sunshine State and its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, were heavily criticised for failing to close its beaches during Spring Break when the coronavirus first reached American shores and again when it became one of the first states to curtail shutdown measures.
It's now seeing a severe flare-up - as the total number of cases in the state nears 94,000.
Texas, Nevada and Arizona also continue to see a worrying increase in infectious after ignoring the scientific advice to reopen early, casting fresh doubt on US president Donald Trump's insistence it is safe to reopen.
Florida is not only Trump's adopted home state and the site of his Mar-a-Lago resort - it's also set to be the venue for this year's Republican National Convention, after Trump insisted the event coronating him as the GOP's presdiential nominee for a second time be moved from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville.
Trump is staging a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this evening, where there are considerable fears the close proximity of the 19,000-strong arena crowd could also encourage the spread of the fatal respiratory disease.
‘There isn’t a coronavirus second wave,’ US vice president insists
Actually, Mike Pence is technically right here, in a sense.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the US is still in its first wave of Covid-19 infections - and the coronavirus isn't going anywhere.
Graph shows Covid-19 persisting in US while it subsides in other worst-hit countries
Here's Graig Graziosi with an ashonishing graphic illustrating the dogged persistence of the novel coronavirus in the US compared with other nations that suffered a comparably vicious dose.
Russian football team forced to field youth squad after six players quarantined, lose 10-1
As the English Premier League cautiously returns to action after months in lockdown, spare a thought for FC Rostov, whose first team has been hard-hit by Covid-19 and were only saved from total humiliation by the brilliance of their young keeper.
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