UK extends wage protection; PM fears vaccine is elusive

LONDON: British chancellor Rishi Sunak on Tuesday extended the scheme to pay 80% of the wages of employees to a limit of £2,500 per month until October, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson feared that a vaccine for Covid-19 may never be found. Johnson called it a “worst-case scenario”, but expressed the hope of a breakthrough in trials.

Making the announcement about extending the job retention scheme from June to October in the House of Commons, Sunak said, “We believe in the dignity of work and we are doing everything we can to protect people currently unable to work.”

Based on comprehensive figures from the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s latest death toll stood at 40,011.

Meanwhile, scientists from the University of Oxford are starting a first-of-its-kind study to see whether available drugs can help keep older, more vulnerable people with mild cases from becoming severely ill.