England

LONDON (AP) — Prince Charles remotely opened a vast temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients at London’s main exhibition center Friday, as the number of coronavirus-related deaths reported in the U.K. surpassed China’s official total.

While confirmed virus cases and deaths continued to rise steeply, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he remained in isolation with a fever eight days after testing positive for the new virus.

LONDON (Reuters) - The peak of the United Kingdom’s coronavirus outbreak will be slightly sooner than previously thought and will come in the next few weeks, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday.

“The modelling suggests that that peak will be slightly sooner than previous, in the next few weeks but it is very, very sensitive to how many people follow the social distancing guidelines,” Hancock told BBC radio.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways (ICAG.L) is in talks with its union about a plan to suspend around 32,000 staff in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the situation said.

The British flag carrier has massively reduced flights and warned it will need to cut jobs to survive the emergency as the battered aviation sector frantically seeks to take out costs.

Owned by IAG, BA has already suspended flights from Britain’s second busiest airport, Gatwick, and its parent company has said flying capacity would be down 75% in April and May.

LONDON, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Britain said on Wednesday that it will postpone until next year the UN climate talks (COP26) set to take place in Glasgow in November this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a government press release.

"Dates for a rescheduled conference in 2021, hosted in Glasgow by the UK in partnership with Italy, will be set out in due course following further discussion with parties," it added.

LONDON (AP) — As increasing numbers of European hospitals buckle under the strain of tens of thousands of coronavirus patients, the crisis has exposed a surprising paradox: Some of the world’s best health systems are remarkably ill-equipped to handle a pandemic.

Outbreak experts say Europe’s hospital-centric systems, lack of epidemic experience and early complacency are partly to blame for the pandemic’s catastrophic tear across the continent.

(Reuters) - Britain’s largest pizza delivery company Domino’s Pizza Group (DOM.L) on Tuesday named former Costa Coffee Chief Executive Officer Dominic Paul as its top boss replacing David Wild, whose departure was announced last year.

Paul, who led Costa Coffee from 2016 to 2019 ahead of its 3.9 billion pound ($4.82 billion) sale to Coca-Cola (KO.N) last year, will join Domino’s on May 1.

LONDON (Reuters) - The British police have done a good job in the coronavirus crisis though there may be some individual instances of some officers going a little too far in enforcing a lockdown, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Tuesday.

“The police are doing a difficult job and they are doing it well,” Shapps told Sky.

LONDON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A total of 19,522 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Britain as of Sunday morning, marking an increase of 2,433 in the past 24 hours, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

As of Saturday afternoon, some 1,228 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, said the department.

Meanwhile, a letter from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will land on the doorsteps of 30 million households across Britain from next week.

LONDON (Reuters) - Sovereign wealth funds from oil-producing countries mainly in the Middle East and Africa are on course to dump up to $225 billion in equities, a senior banker estimates, as plummeting oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic hit state finances.

The rapid spread of the virus has ravaged the global economy, sending markets into a tailspin and costing both oil and non-oil based sovereign wealth funds around $1 trillion in equity losses, according to JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson is warning Britons in a letter to 30 million households that things will get worse before they get better, as he himself self-isolates in Downing Street to recover from the coronavirus.

Britain has reported 17,089 confirmed cases of the disease and 1,019 deaths and the peak of the epidemic in the country is expected to come in a few weeks.