Many UK teachers and parents who are preparing for a mass return of children to classrooms in England starting on Monday are “scared”. Almost all English students will take face-to-face classes as part of a “big bang” return, challenging appeals for a phased restart along with mitigating measures to control attendance levels.
The US created 379,000 jobs in February, pointing to a recovery in the labor market amid a rapid decline in coronavirus cases across the country. The increase in employment last month was more than double the pace of January, when the economy created 166,000 jobs after cutting 306,000 during the increase in the pandemic in December.
Laboratories that work with dangerous viruses and other pathogens should be more tightly controlled, warned a UK biological weapons expert. “I think we need to see biological hazards as an existential threat,” said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commander of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment.
The EU will urge the US to allow the export of millions of doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to Europe as Brussels scrambles to fill the supply deficits that have undermined its impulse to inoculate. The European Commission intends to raise the issue in discussions aimed at increasing collaboration in the fight against Covid-19.
A Wizz Air flight attendant checks an aircraft cabin at Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc International Airport © Bloomberg
The share price of low-cost operator Wizz Air has been on the rise since the publication of its half-yearly figures in November. Co-founder and chief executive József Váradi unloaded around £ 6.4 million in shares, while the latest figures indicate that investors are placing a so much faith in the various ongoing vaccine programs.
The first test for a T-cell response to the virus behind Covid-19 received emergency approval for use in the United States, allowing people to find out if they had the disease. Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies worked with Microsoft to create the blood test, which can be more accurate than some antibody tests.
Fast-food chains are devouring street locations left empty by retail operators and casual restaurants that struggle while planning aggressive expansion in the United Kingdom. Adam Parkinson, European vice president of Jollibee Foods, based in the Philippines, said the company wanted to be in “all major cities in the UK” with plans to invest £ 30 million.
Veteran value investor John Rogers predicted that the United States is moving towards a repeat of the “thunderous 20s” of a century ago, which will ultimately encourage investors to dump stocks of technology in favor of companies that are more sensitive to the economy. “This will be a sustainable recovery [from the pandemic]”, The founder of Ariel Investments told the Financial Times.