THE VIRUS IN BRIEF
MORE than 12,000 people have signed an open letter urging Business Secretary Alok Sharma, pictured, to ensure vulnerable workers are not forgotten during the pandemic. Charity Diabetes UK claims guidance for employers has not been clear about the risk to people who are clinically vulnerable but were not asked to shield. Its chief executive Chris Askew said: “The message from people with diabetes is clear; we want to go about our lives, but we’re deeply worried about our health as lockdown eases, and we want to know we’re going to be protected.”
GREECE has extended a ban on direct flights arriving from Britain, pushing it back to July 15.
The move has dealt a blow to hundreds of thousands of Britons who had hoped their summer holidays would get the green light next week.
Greece was a country the Government had hoped to strike an air bridge deal with, paving the way for UK tourists to travel without the need to quarantine on their return.
The ban was due to lift on July 1 but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pushed it back a fortnight.
Tourism minister Haris Theoharis said the UK’s coronavirus record was not good enough to allow Britons in. He said: “The UK has a big difference in medical status with Greece.”
BORIS Johnson has vowed to stop the UK being one of the fattest nations in Europe to make the public “fitter and happier”.
The Prime Minister said junk food-loving Britons were significantly more overweight than most Europeans “apart from the Maltese”.
He embarked on a health kick after he was left fighting for his life when he contracted coronavirus. Mr Johnson said: “We certainly must have a care for the health of our population, and we will be happier and fitter and more resistant to diseases like Covid if we can tackle obesity.”
CALIFORNIAN authorities have closed all bars in Los Angeles amid a spike in coronavirus cases.
Other US states, including Florida and Texas, took similar action as the number of Covid-19 infections in the US continued to spiral.
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom had only allowed bars to reopen in the state on June 12, but gave county health officials the authority to keep them shut as long as they saw fit.
Mr Newsom had ordered Californians to wear face masks in public and during “high-risk settings”.
But photographs later emerged of bars and nightclubs showing large crowds of people gathered together without masks on and standing in packed lines.