Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

27 Aug

27 August 2020

A series of daily updates for CHO members regarding relevant updates pertaining to Coronavirus from home and abroad.

Key Announcements   

  • A new payment for people on low incomes who are required to self-isolate and are unable to work from home in area s with high rates of coronavirus is to undergo trials in the north-west of England, the UK government has  announced .
  • City centres could become “ghost towns” if the prime minister does not do more to encourage workers back to the office, the head of business lobby group the CBI  says .
  • Restaurants are extending their offer of discounted meals in the government’s eat out to help out scheme after it ends on 31 August because of its popularity with diners, although the businesses will have to cover the costs  themselves .
  • A mini-boom since the property market reopened in different parts of the UK has led to properties selling much faster since the height of lockdown, research  suggests .
  • A home care worker who did not wear protective equipment may have infected a client with a fatal case of coronavirus during weeks of contradictory government guidance on whether the kit was needed or not, an official investigation has  found .

Regional /Devolved  

  • The deaths of two people in Scotland are the country’s first confirmed coronavirus fatalities in six weeks.   It is the first time since 16 July that the deaths of patients who have tested positive for the virus has been recorded in daily  figures .

International

  • India detected an all-time high of nearly 76,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday — and recorded more than 1,000 new coronavirus deaths — as the pathogen continues to spread uncontrolled through the South Asian nation of 1.4bn  people .
  • The Bank of Korea sharply downgraded its economic projection for this year, forecasting a 1.3 per cent contraction for Asia’s fourth-largest economy, as health authorities grapple to contain the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak in six  months .
  • Malaysia’s government hopes to complete guidelines for proposed travel corridors with Japan and Singapore by next week, as new cases in the south-east Asian country slowed, state-funded media reported on  Wednesday .
  • France and Italy reported post-lockdown daily case highs on Wednesday. France’s 5,429 new cases raised concerns ahead of the new school year starting next week. Italy reported 1,367 new coronavirus cases, its highest daily tally since May when the country was still in  lockdown .

Stakeholders

  • Rolls-Royce will seek to raise at least £2bn by selling off assets including a division that makes parts for the Eurofighter Typhoon, after the coronavirus crisis dragged the UK’s premier  engineer into heavy half-year  losses .
  • Flutter Entertainment, the owner of  PaddyPower  Betfair and  SkyBet , said that revenues jumped by more than a fifth during lockdown despite the widespread cancellation of sports  fixtures .
  • Recruiter Hays reported that hiring has stabilised since May as its fees in the year to the end of June fell 11 per cent to £996m as companies put a halt to recruitment through the pandemic  crisis .