Here’s a quick summary of what has happened around the world over the last 24 hours, brought to you exclusively by British Herald.
Britain may have hit its daily target of 100,000 COVID-19 tests, or come close, putting in place the beginnings of a network to test, track and trace people through the pandemic.
Many Britons would be uncomfortable leaving their homes even if the government ordered the lifting of strict coronavirus lockdown restrictions in a month’s time, according to a poll on Friday. Britain has been on lockdown since March 23 but on Thursday Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country was now past the peak of the pandemic and promised to set out a plan next week on how it might start gradually easing restrictions to allow a return to normal life. A survey by Ipsos Mori showed that more than 60% would be uncomfortable returning to bars and restaurants, using public transport or going to a large gathering such as a sporting event. Over 40% would still be reluctant to go to the shops or send their children to school and over 30% would be worried about going to work or meeting friends.
A manufacturer of a possible COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists said on Friday it may know by the end of May if it can make a million doses a month with a view to building stocks for commercial supply when the vaccine is approved. Cobra Biologics is one of the firms working to make a potential vaccine known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 being developed by scientists at the University of Oxford.
Ozone depletion over the Arctic hit a “record level” in March, the biggest since 2011, but the hole has now closed, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.
The springtime phenomenon in the northern hemisphere was driven by ozone-depleting substances still in the atmosphere and a very cold winter in the stratosphere, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.
“These two factors combined to give a very high level of depletion which was worse than we saw in 2011. It’s now back to normal again … the ozone hole has closed,” she said.
Nullis, asked whether less pollution during the pandemic had played a role, said: “It was completely unrelated to COVID.”
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