Group: Pandemic tech tools raise risk of everyday tracking
A new report group says digital contact tracing apps, artificial intelligence and other tech tools that European governments rolled out to combat COVID-19 failed to play a key role in solving the pandemic and now threaten to make such monitoring widely accepted.
UK says new study vindicates delaying 2nd virus vaccine shot
But the Oxford research was greeted with excitement by U.K. officials under pressure to justify their decision to delay the second dose. Britain has Europe's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with more than 108,000 deaths, and is in its third national lockdown as authorities try to contain a new, more transmissible virus variant first identified in southeast England. So far 105 cases of the variant have been identified in the U.K., 11 of them in people with no links to overseas travel. Scientists say there's no evidence the South African variant is more serious than the original virus but it may be more contagious. AdThat is a worry as the U.K. races to vaccinate its own population against the virus.
UK tests house-to-house in hunt for new COVID-19 variant
(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)LONDON โ England has begun house-by-house COVID-19 testing in some communities as authorities try to snuff out a new variant of the coronavirus before it spreads widely and undermines a nationwide vaccination program. Public health officials are concerned about the variant first identified in South Africa because it contains a mutation of the virusโ characteristic spike protein that existing vaccines target. No conclusive evidence has emerged to show the Kent variant causes more serious COVID-19 cases or deaths. In recent weeks, scientists also identified new, more contagious variants in South Africa and Brazil, both of which contained the spike protein mutation. AdIn hopes of preventing those variants from becoming widespread in Britain, the government has barred travel from South Africa, South America and Portugal, a popular European transit point for travelers from South America.
Most of England to greet 2021 under strictest virus measures
A mask on the pavement near the entrance of a hospital on Westminster Bridge in London, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. The move will severely curtail New Year's Eve celebrations in parts of England that are home to 44 million people, or 78% of the population. The U.K. also reported Wednesday that another 981 people with the coronavirus had died. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said secondary schools in England would not resume in-person teaching until Jan. 11. Most primary schools will welcome students back on Monday as planned, although not the ones in some virus hotspots, including a big chunk of London.
UK unemployment contained by salary support package
The British economy grew by far less than anticipated during May, dampening hopes that the recovery from what is set to be one of the countrys deepest recessions in centuries will be rapid. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)LONDON Official figures show that the British government's salary support scheme is continuing to maintain employment levels in the country during the coronavirus lockdown. That may appear curious given that the British economy has endured one of its biggest contractions in centuries during that period, when much of it was mothballed as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus. Unemployment is expected to rise sharply over the coming months, especially from October when the government has said the scheme will come to an end. Many economists think unemployment could more than double to over 3 million this year, levels last seen in the 1980s.