Koronawirus

Takeaway firm Deliveroo and 300 restaurant groups are urging the government to run Eat Out to Help Out again when restaurants finally reopen. They said the discount scheme, which gave 50% off meals in August, would boost demand for ailing restaurants.more

A new trial is to test how well the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine works in children. Some 300 volunteers will take part, with the first vaccinations in the trial taking place later in February. Researchers will assess whether the jab produces a strong immune response in children aged between six and 17.more

A single coke can would be big enough to contain all of the COVID-19-causing virus currently circulating in the world, according to a British mathematician.more

A universal vaccine that would work on all Covid-19 variants by targeting the core of the virus instead of just the spike protein could be available in as little as a year, researchers say.more

Vaccines and treatments could mean that - by the end of the year - Covid-19 is an illness we can live with "like we do flu", the health secretary has said.more

The coronavirus will probably continue to circulate long-term despite the roll-out of vaccines, the head of the EU's ECDC health agency told AFP on Friday, urging Europe to keep its restrictions in place for now.more

The UK's coronavirus reproduction number - or R number - has fallen to below one for the first time since July. The figure is now between 0.7 and 0.9, according to the latest estimate and below one in every region of the UK.more

One-fifth of people in Italy currently diagnosed with the coronavirus are infected with the UK variant, according to a report by the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health Services. It shows an increase in the reproduction rate of the virus to 0.95.more

Wales was the first part of the UK to meet yesterday - more than two days ahead of schedule - the UK government's target of offering Covid-19 vaccination to all people in the first four priority groups by mid-February.more

The UK should be ‘more or less free’ of the Covid-19 crisis by the end of this year, a leading epidemiologist has predicted.more

French health authorities have recommended that only one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine be given to people who have already been infected with the coronavirus. The recommendations are based on the latest research.more

Passengers at Heathrow Airport reported scenes of chaos after having to wait in queues for more than four hours.more

The coronavirus crisis and Brexit show just how vulnerable global supply chains are. Will the production of important goods be moved back to Germany? - wonders the German weekly "Spiegel".more

British GDP fell by a record 9.9 percent in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, although better-than-expected results in the fourth quarter will prevent a second bottom of recession, the National Statistics Office (ONS) reported. According to the calculations of the Bank of England, this is the largest annual decline in GDP since 1709.more

The medical news portal Stat has analyzed the relationship between Covid-19 immunization and the wealth of individual cities in the United States. It turned out that property inequalities are of great importance in the case of vaccination - in affluent places, access to the vaccine is easier.more

A cross-party group of MPs has urged ministers to retain the £20 a week universal credit Covid top-up for at least another 12 months, saying failure to extend the payment would help trigger a spike in poverty not seen since the Thatcher era.more

Britain may have to keep “some measures” in place to restrict the spread of COVID-19 until its entire adult population is vaccinated, Susan Hopkins, the managing director of Public Health England, said on Thursday.more

Donald Trump was reportedly much more ill with Covid-19 in October than the White House publicly admitted at the time, with some officials concerned that he would need to be put on a ventilator.more

Brits who’ve had their coronvirus jab could be given scannable QR codes allowing them to travel abroad.more

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found close-fitting surgical masks worn underneath cloth masks – known as double masking – can significantly enhance protection against Covid-19.more

It is "too early" to know whether summer holidays can go ahead, the health secretary has said. Matt Hancock said there was still "a lot of uncertainty" but ministers were doing everything possible to make sure people could have a holiday this year. He told the BBC he had booked his own summer break in Cornwall "months ago".more

Ireland expects to retain strict COVID-19 health measures at least until Easter, Minister Micheal Martin said on Thursday.more

A variant of the coronavirus that first emerged in the U.K., and has since been identified in over 50 countries, could become the dominant form of the virus worldwide, according to the head of the U.K.’s genetic surveillance program.more

AstraZeneca has unveiled plans to build a new Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing facility in partnership with IDT Biologika at the German firm’s Dessau site, in a move aiming to speed up production and defuse a row with the EU over supplies.more

A maximum 10-year jail term for lying about recent travel history has been defended by the government.more