30/04/20 COVID-19 Global News Update

Australian business borrowing surged by the most in three decades in March as firms stockpiled cash to see them through a widespread economic lockdown that is only now being eased slightly in some states.

Investors shrug off US growth gloom after promising data from remdesivir drug trial Coronavirus

France’s economy shrank even faster than economists predicted

World stock markets surged on Wednesday following encouraging news for an experimental COVID-19 treatment and some positive earnings reports, while beaten-up oil prices soared.

"No-one wants to buy clothes to sit at home in," as Next's chief executive Simon Wolfson puts it.

The British car industry faces losing output worth more than 8 billion pounds due to the coronavirus outbreak, which cut production in March by a third, falling to its lowest level since 2009, an industry body said on Thursday.

Universities in Northern Ireland face multi-million-pound losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. Queen's University (QUB) could face up losses of up to £80m in a worst case scenario.

100,000 people will be sent self-testing kits to determine if they are currently infected.

Britain plans to test a randomly chosen group of 100,000 people for COVID-19 as part of its efforts to understand infection rates better before loosening restrictions on the public, its health ministry said on Thursday.

Coronavirus could impact on the international football calendar for "two or three years", says a member of Uefa's executive committee.

The Trump administration is planning to speed up development of a coronavirus vaccine with the goal of having 100 million doses ready by the end of 2020, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

South Africa reported another 354 cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, the most new cases recorded in one day and bringing the total in the country to 5,350, the health department said in a tweet.

Japan's relatively low rate of virus testing raises questions about how it has tackled the pandemic.

Yemeni authorities reported multiple coronavirus infections for the first time on Wednesday after the United Nations said it feared the disease could be spreading undetected in a country where millions face famine and lack medical care.

Measures last seen in World War Two will be needed to allow jury trials to resume, says top judge.