Manchester airport director quits after passengers miss flights due to long queue chaos April 5, 2022 Manchester Airport’s director has quit her role after eight years, following mounting criticism over chaos with queuing. Karen Smart left on Tuesday after Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said emergency services could be drafted in to deal with the mayhem. Long queues developed over the past month due to lengthy security checks, which led to [...]
Shanghai completely shut: ‘Extremely grim’ Covid outbreak in China’s biggest city deepens with 26m people confined to their homes April 5, 2022 Amid an ongoing lockdown confining around 26m in Shanghai, a city official said this afternoon local time that the Covid-19 outbreak in China’s largest metropolis of Shanghai is “extremely grim” The director of Shanghai’s working group on epidemic control, Gu Honghui, was quoted by state media as saying the outbreak in the city was “still [...]
Supermarket till sales down four per cent last month as online shopping and cost of living hit hard April 5, 2022 Supermarket till sales continue to feel the impact of online buying brought about by the pandemic, with a four per cent fall last month. A new study indicates that online sales also fell almost 20 per cent from last year, as the cost of living crisis continues to change consumer habits. The report by NielsenIQ [...]
Axa vows not to appeal ruling over Corbin & King’s £4.4m claim for Covid linked losses April 3, 2022 Axa has said it will not appeal a High Court ruling ordering it to pay out £4.36m to high end restaurateur Corbin & King, after the firm was forced to close its restaurants during the pandemic. The French insurer said it would not appeal the February decision after it initially refused to pay the restaurant [...]
Tesco to stock £2 lateral flow tests from Friday March 31, 2022 Tesco is going to stock £2 lateral flow tests in store and online as of tomorrow. The supermarket giant signed a deal with healthcare firm Everything Genetic, as the government ends access to free lateral flows. The £2 kits, which are “less than a price of a takeaway coffee” will be available in more than [...]
Randox delays release of audited results amid concerns over Covid procurement process March 30, 2022 Covid test maker Randox has delayed release of its audited results amid mounting scrutiny over the government’s decision to award it contracts worth almost £777m. The delay to publication comes after the UK’s public spending watchdog said the government failed to document the procurement process that led to Randox being awarded 22 government contracts for [...]
Government sets boundaries for free lateral flow entitlement as ‘new phase’ of pandemic dawns March 29, 2022 Free COVID tests will remain available to certain groups even after the government scraps universal testing from Friday onwards.
Shanghai is shut: China’s biggest city and beating heart of Asian economy goes into fresh Covid lockdown March 28, 2022 Authorities in China are currently locking down its largest city, Shanghai, as part of its strict Covid-19 strategy, amid questions over the policy’s economic toll on the country. Shanghai’s Pudong financial district and nearby areas will be locked down until Friday as citywide mass testing gets underway, the local government said. In the second phase [...]
Number of Covid patients in hospital in Scotland reaches highest total ever March 21, 2022 The number of people in hospital with coronavirus in Scotland has reached its highest total ever since the start of the pandemic, with the latest figures showing 2,128 patients in hospital with the virus. In response to the figures, people should “top up” their Covid-19 jabs when called by the NHS, the Health Secretary has [...]
Retail and construction insolvencies soar against backdrop of supply chain pressures and war in Ukraine March 15, 2022 Soaring material costs have led to a steep rise in insolvencies in the retail and construction industries of almost 50 per cent. The war in Ukraine and its impact on rising fuel prices, brought concerns over supply chains pressures into sharp focus this week, new research from tax and audit specialists Mazars has shown. During [...]