07/05/20 COVID-19 Global News Update

For Nurul Zulkifli, founder of the Malaysian-based clothing brand Mimpi Kita, now should be the busiest and most profitable time of the year.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his coronavirus task force would shift its primary focus to reviving U.S. business and social life, while acknowledging that reopening the economy could put more lives at risk.

Rolling coverage of the latest financial news, as Britain’s central bank publishes its latest inflation report and monetary policy decision Latest: UK could shrink 25% this quarter, Bank warns BoE also leaves interest rates at record lows Coronavirus

Dairy farmers in England can apply for up to £10,000 in cash payments under a scheme to support the industry during the coronavirus pandemic. Demand for dairy products in the hospitality sector has dropped with the closure of many cafes and restaurants.

BT today scrapped its dividend as the coronavirus crisis and full-fibre broadband costs weighed on profit. The telecoms giant said it had taken the “exceptionally difficult” decision to suspend the payout until 2022 and rebase it after that date.

She told it is “very difficult” to put a date on when the public will have access to pubs and restaurants.

The Northern Ireland Executive will continue discussions later on how and when to relax any lockdown restrictions. Finance Minister Conor Murphy said he hopes a plan will be produced on Thursday, but stressed the executive would not be bound by dates.

Debenhams has confirmed that another five stores will not be re-opening after lockdown restrictions are lifted. The department store chain has struck deals with landlords to keep most of its 142 stores open, after it fell into administration for the second time.

Some 400,000 surgical gowns ordered from Turkey have not been given to NHS workers because they do not meet British safety standards, the government has confirmed.

Boris Johnson will review the UK's coronavirus lockdown with his cabinet later, after suggesting some rules could be eased from Monday. By law the government must review the restrictions every three weeks, and Thursday marks the latest deadline.

Thousands of private renters who have lost their jobs could be facing eviction when the coronavirus lockdown ends, the government has been warned. Almost half a million people are at "high risk" of homelessness, according to 187 local councils across England.

As lockdowns start to ease in many countries, so the tentative return to work begins, leaving people understandably concerned about how safe a space an office will be in the middle of a global pandemic.

Colombia has removed the contact-tracing feature in its official app for informing residents about the novel coronavirus after experiencing glitches, but aims to rebuild using potentially more reliable technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, a government official told Reuters.

The European Union is to put forward proposals for a mechanism to learn from the coronavirus pandemic at the next meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) but will stop short of calls from the US and Australia for a full international inquiry.

In our series of letters from African journalists, Waihiga Mwaura writes from Kenya about concerns that money set aside for the fight against coronavirus is being misspent.

Poland governing coalition parties have agreed to postpone this Sunday's presidential election because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party had wanted the vote to go ahead to get Andrzej Duda, 47, re-elected.

Behind a faded door, in a side-street near Montmartre, a long straggly queue is starting to form. In Paris under lockdown, hotels and restaurants may be deserted but food banks are getting busier. Women with pushchairs, men with umbrellas, everyone a metre apart; there's very little talking.

Portugal’s second-largest telecommunications company, NOS, posted a loss of 10.4 million euros ($11.22 million) in the first quarter of 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus, which shut all of the firm’s cinemas and led to a drop in revenue from TV subscriptions.

Iceland has all but eliminated the coronavirus outbreak as 97% of infected patients have recovered and only two new cases have been confirmed in the last week, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.