United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has appointed the former Goldman Sachs investment banker who led the country’s 2012 Olympic planning to organise the domestic manufacture of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers treating coronavirus patients.

The government has faced severe criticism from doctors and health workers over shortages of equipment, including masks, visors and gowns, and the suggestion that some items might have to be re-used if supplies run out.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s government is not thinking about easing yet the lockdown enacted almost four weeks ago to help control the coronavirus outbreak, a senior minister said on Sunday.

“The facts and the advice are clear at the moment that we should not be thinking of lifting of these restrictions yet,” Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove told Sky News.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has asked that there be no gun salutes to mark her birthday on Tuesday, a reporter for ITV News said on Twitter, saying that the monarch did not feel it appropriate in light of the coronavirus crisis.

Gun salutes, in which blank rounds are fired from various location across London, are typically used by the royal family to mark special occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays. The Queen’s 94th birthday is on April 21.

London, Apr 17 (AP) A leading public health expert said Friday that Britain likely has the highest coronavirus death rate in Europe due to what he described as system errors, while the government defended its record in responding to the pandemic.

Anthony Costello, director of the Institute for Global Health at University College London, said the U.K. could see 40,000 deaths by the time the first wave of the country's outbreak is over.

London, Apr 17 (AFP/PTI) London's transport authorities on Friday announced new measures to protect bus drivers from coronavirus, as colleagues held a minute's silence for 20 who have already died.

Mayor Sadiq Khan, whose father was a bus driver, led tributes to the victims as authorities said passengers would no longer be able to use the front door near the driver.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices were mixed on Friday as news of President Donald Trump’s plans to ease the U.S. coronavirus lockdown to get the American economy moving again were quickly overshadowed by China’s worst quarterly economic contraction on record.

Brent rose by 50 cents, or 1.8%, to $28.32 a barrel by 0954 GMT. However, U.S. crude CLc1 for May delivery tumbled by $1.27, or 6.4%, to $18.60 and below the level required for many producers to cover their costs.

LONDON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The British government announced on Thursday that the current restrictive measures that aim to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus will remain in place for "at least three weeks".

Asserting that relaxing lockdown measures would lead to a resurgence of the virus, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, told reporters that the government has decided relaxing the measures would make the economic impact worse, not better.

16 April 2020; AFP: A 99-year-old British World War II veteran on Thursday completed 100 laps of his garden in a fundraising challenge for healthcare staff that has captured the heart of the nation, raising more than £12 million ($15 million, 13.8 million euros).

"Incredible and now words fail me," said Tom Moore, a captain who served in India, after finishing the laps of his 25-metre (82-foot) garden with the help of his walking frame.

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar consolidated its gains against other currencies on Thursday before the release of weekly U.S. jobless data, which are likely to provide more evidence of a deep recession in the world’s biggest economy.

The dollar edged up 0.1% to 99.774 against a basket of major currencies, after snapping a four-day losing streak the previous day as equity market gains hit a wall.

However, stabilising oil prices and some improvement in risk sentiment on stock markets helped temper the dollar’s gains. [O/R] [O/R]

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will probably have to maintain some level of social distancing until a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is available, Neil Ferguson, a professor who has helped shape the government’s response to the pandemic, said on Thursday.

“We will have to maintain some level of social distancing, a significant level of social distancing, probably indefinitely until we have a vaccine available,” Ferguson told BBC radio.