Troops to help UK Covid testing

As England goes into coronavirus Lockdown 2 from Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called in the army to help with rolling out a massive testing programme across the UK.

He said there is “realistic hope” of a vaccine for Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2021. Astra-Zeneca said on Sunday Britain’s health regulator had started an accelerated review of its potential vaccine.

The lockdown until December 2 is likely to be extended if it does not lead to lower incidence of the virus, deaths and hospital admissions, senior minister Michael Gove said on Sunday, as retail shops reported busy shopping for essential items before the start of lockdown.

Johnson’s announcement on Saturday sparked another round of political jousting, with the opposition Labour Party reminding him that it had called for a lockdown weeks ago.

Labour said it would support the relevant legislation for the second lockdown when it is put to vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

In Canada, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has gone into self-isolation after a person she came into contact with tested positive for the coronavirus. Freeland is the first highprofile Canadian to have quarantined after receiving a notification on the Covid app launched by the government.

Nearly half of Slovakia’s entire population took Covid-19 swabs on Saturday, the first day of twoday nationwide testing the government hopes will help reverse a fast rise in infections without a hard lockdown.

Israel began clinical trials of a novel coronavirus vaccine from the Israel Institute for Biological Research on Sunday.

Australia has recorded no new locally transmitted coronavirus infection for the first time in five months.