Covid-19, a year on: How Big Pharma reinvented itself March 25, 2021 In this series, City A.M. 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 [...]
Care home resident to be vaccinated despite son’s objections, judge rules March 24, 2021 An 83-year-old care home resident with dementia should be given a Covid-19 vaccine despite her son’s objections, a judge has ruled. Judge Simon Carr concluded in a hearing at a specialist court that vaccination against coronavirus would be in the woman’s best interests. The court issued a protective order over her identity. The pensioner’s GP [...]
France may be added to UK’s travel ‘red list’, warns Boris Johnson March 24, 2021 Tougher border restrictions with France including adding the country to the UK’s so-called travel red list may be needed “very soon”, the Prime Minister has said. Boris Johnson told MPs that the government “will have to look at” quarantine measures for hauliers coming into the UK from France “just because of the ambiguity about the [...]
EU to impose tougher controls on Covid vaccine exports to the UK March 24, 2021 The EU has updated its vaccine export restrictions to enforce tougher controls on shipments of jabs to the UK, as a bitter dispute over Covid vaccine supplies continues to escalate. The fresh restrictions, which are due to go before EU leaders tomorrow, stop short of a total ban on vaccine exports but are likely to [...]
No injection: Pfizer begins human trials of Covid pill March 23, 2021 Pfizer has begun early-stage human trials of a pill to treat the first signs of Covid infection, the company announced today. The US pharmaceuticals giant said the oral treatment had “demonstrated potent” activity against Sars-Cov-2 in previous trials. If it succeeds in human trials, the pill could be prescribed to those recently infected with coronavirus [...]
Spain to lift travel ban on UK arrivals from next week March 23, 2021 Spain is set to lift a ban on arrivals from Britain from 30 March, three months after suspending flights from the UK following concerns over the Kent Covid strain. A ban on all UK arrivals to Spain by air and sea has been in place since 22 December. Government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told a [...]
Going Dutch: Downing Street refuses to rule out sharing Astrazeneca vaccines with EU March 23, 2021 Downing Street has refused to rule out sharing British supplies of the Astrazeneca vaccine made in the Netherlands with the EU to avert an exports ban from the bloc. Asked whether the UK would be willing to offer some of the Dutch-made jabs to Europe, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said Boris Johnson has “set [...]
London records two Covid deaths in lowest daily jump since September March 22, 2021 London recorded two Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, signalling the lowest daily fatality count since the beginning of September. It marks the eleventh day in a row that the capital has reported single-digit coronavirus deaths, hailing a dramatic drop from a record 204 coronavirus-related fatalities reported in London on 19 January. The figure [...]
Test and Trace trials ‘groundbreaking’ new technology to detect Covid mutations March 22, 2021 NHS Test and Trace has begun trials of a “groundbreaking” new variant test that can hunt down Covid mutations and return results within 48 hours, the health secretary has announced. The tests could potentially halve the time it takes to identify whether a positive coronavirus sample contains a variant of concern, which usually take around five days [...]
Fiery Sri Lankan and 36 other restaurant-in-a-box delivery kits March 19, 2021 Almost a year since the first lockdown, the restaurant world has been forced to change in ways that would have seemed laughable in the pre-Covid times. Top chefs are now launching successful at-home delivery platforms that promise to change the face of fine dining for years to come. We have sampled some of the very [...]