United Kingdom

LONDON, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting scheduled to take place in the Rwandan capital Kigali in June has been postponed due to COVID-19, the organisation said.

A new date for the event, which takes place every two years, would be announced in due course, the body’s London-based secretariat said in a statement.

The last CHOGM was held in the United Kingdom in 2018.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday faced a call for an inquiry into his government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis after failing to fully explain partial death data, limited testing or the lack of equipment for hospitals.

The novel coronavirus outbreak, the worst health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic, has left governments across the world grappling with stressed populations, a stalled global economy and overloaded health services.

LONDON (Reuters) - The novel coronavirus outbreak has caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the United Kingdom, according to a Financial Times analysis of statistics office data.

The FT extrapolation is based on the number of all fatalities in official data recorded recently that have exceeded the usual average. These figures include deaths that occurred outside hospitals.

The latest hospital death data show 17,337 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus across the United Kingdom as of this Monday.

LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose against the Saudi riyal in the forwards market on Wednesday after oil prices slumped, with Brent crude futures dropping to their lowest in more than two decades as the coronavirus pandemic caused demand to collapse.

One-year dollar/riyal forwards rose as high as 264.3 points, their highest since November 2018, Refinitiv data showed.

The Saudi riyal is pegged at 3.75 to the dollar in the spot market, so banks often use the forwards market to hedge against risks.

LONDON (Reuters) - The impact of the coronavirus at the end of March was probably large enough to cause Britain’s economy to shrink in the first quarter of 2020 as a whole, Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane said in a podcast released on Tuesday.

Haldane said he expected a sharp economic contraction in the second quarter and also echoed comments from fellow policymakers Ben Broadbent and Silvana Tenreyro that recovery may prove slow whenever coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

LONDON (Reuters) - Benchmark Brent and U.S. oil futures for June delivery plunged to around two-decade lows on Tuesday, a day after U.S. May futures sank into negative territory for the first time in history as demand tumbled due to the coronavirus crisis.

Brent for June delivery LCOc1, known as the front-month contract after the May futures contract expired, fell to as low as $18.10, its lowest since November 2001. At 1200 GMT, it was down 18% at $20.98.

LONDON (Reuters) - The true extent of Britain’s COVID-19 death toll was more than 40% higher than the government’s daily figures indicated as of April 10, according to data that put the country on track to become among the worst-hit in Europe.

The Office for National Statistics said it recorded 13,121 deaths by April 10 in England and Wales, which account for the vast majority of Britain’s population, compared with 9,288 in the government’s daily toll for those who died in hospital.

The ONS figures include deaths in care homes and hospices as well as in hospitals.

20 April 2020; AFP: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have blacklisted four major British tabloid newspapers, accusing them of publishing stories that were "distorted, false and invasive beyond reason", UK media reported.

In a scathing letter to the editors of the Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror and Express, the couple, who have formally stepped down as senior members of the British Royal family, said there would be "no corroboration and zero engagement" with the newspapers, the Guardian said.

20 April 2020; MEMO: A huge delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the UK from Turkey has been delayed, The New Arab reports.

The substantial delivery of the desperately needed PPE was delayed for “logistical reasons”.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick claimed in a statement that the shipment would arrive on Sunday, and would include 84 tonnes of supplies including 400,000 surgical gowns for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

LONDON, Apr 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Another 888 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in hospitals in Britain as of Friday afternoon, bringing the total number of virus-related deaths to 15,464, the Department of Health and Social Care said Saturday.

As of Saturday morning, 114,217 people have tested positive for the virus, marking a daily increase of 5,526, said the department.

The figures were announced amid growing concerns over a serious shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline medical staff in hospitals.