Government to offer free home Covid tests for businesses in back to work push March 28, 2021 The government is set to offer businesses free home test kits for employees, in a bid to get staff back to the workplace after almost a year of home working. In a major expansion of the government’s workplace testing scheme, all businesses with more than 10 employees who cannot offer on-site testing will be eligible [...]
EU will not be ‘blackmailed’ by UK over vaccines, says French minister March 26, 2021 The EU will not be “blackmailed” by the UK over Covid vaccine supplies, France’s foreign minister has said, as a cross-Channel dispute over coronavirus jabs continues to escalate. Jean-Yves Le Drian claimed the UK is set to run into “problems” because it has prioritised first doses of the jab, as he warned that Europe would [...]
Coronavirus latest updates: EU boosts vaccine supply; Norway halts Astrazeneca jab; London R rate rises March 26, 2021 EU boosts production of Covid vaccines The European Medicines Agency announced this afternoon that it has approved the use of two European factories to scale up the EU’s vaccine supply. The Halix factory in the Netherlands has been cleared to produce doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine for the EU, while another in Marburg in Germany [...]
EU approves use of Netherlands factory to produce Astrazeneca vaccine March 26, 2021 The EU medicines regulator has approved the use of a factory in the Netherlands for the production of Covid vaccines for Europe, despite the fact that it is currently being used to make jabs for the UK. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in statement it had cleared the Halix production site in the Netherlands [...]
UK’s Covid alert level downgraded as hospital pressure eases March 25, 2021 The UK’s Covid alert level is set to be downgraded as the number if patients in hospital with coronavirus continues to fall, the head of the NHS has said. NHS England chief Sir Simon Stevens recommended the nation’s coronavirus emergency incident level be lowered from level four to level three, effective from today. It means [...]
Matt Hancock: No guarantee that coronavirus laws will end in six months March 25, 2021 The health secretary has refused to commit to ripping up the Coronavirus Act in six months, telling MPs that emergency Covid laws could stay in place for another year. Speaking at a Commons debate on a potential extension of the legislation, Matt Hancock said: “There are parts of this Act that have allowed us to [...]
Britain most willing nation in the world to get Covid vaccine, survey finds March 25, 2021 People in the UK are the most willing of any nation in the world to get vaccinated against coronavirus, according to a new study. A YouGov poll found that 86 per cent of people in Britain were willing to get a Covid vaccine or had already received one as of 21 March — the highest [...]
Johnson says UK is ‘on the side of openness’ following EU vaccine row March 25, 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson today said that Britain is “on the side of openness” and that did he not want to see restrictions on the exchange of Covid-19 vaccines with the European Union. Yesterday the EU tightened its oversight of coronavirus vaccine exports, giving it greater scope to block shipments to countries with higher inoculation [...]
Astra Zeneca revises US vaccine trial results after claims of outdated data March 25, 2021 AstraZeneca has confirmed its Covid-19 vaccine as 76 per cent effective after a new US trial, which showed it to be only three per cent lower than previously reported. US health officials criticised interim data published on Monday, which showed the vaccine efficacy rate to be at 79 per cent, but was not the most [...]
Covid-19, a year on: How Big Pharma reinvented itself March 25, 2021 In this series, City PM looks back at the last year of the pandemic and Covid restrictions and takes stock of its impact on industries and issues at the heart of British society. Read more: Read the full Covid-19, a year on series here. Six years ago, pharmaceutical chief executive Martin Shkreli drew international condemnation when his [...]
