China has started vaccinating Chinese citizens living in Thailand; Argentinian president announces ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown starting Saturday; Japan expected to expand state of emergency to Okinawa
- Britain in talks to waive Covid vaccine patents to improve global access
- Taiwan wrestles with home working in wake of Covid surge
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The amount of money spent by shoppers in stores across Great Britain soared 9.2% in April compared with March as lockdown restrictions eased and non-essential retailers welcomed back customers, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics.
PA report that compared with April last year – during the first national lockdown – sales were up 43% and up 9.9% compared with the last month of trading before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
Related: UK retail sales surge in April as people flock back to shops – business live
Taiwan’s health minister, Chen Shih-Chung, has urged residents to stay inside their homes this weekend, after another 312 domestic cases of Covid-19 were reported. 72 cases were still without a known source.
Taiwan’s worst outbreak saw a marked uptick last Friday, and has since produced triple figure daily case numbers – low compared to many other countries but by far the worst seen in Taiwan since the pandemic began. Of the 312 cases most were still concentrated around the northern cities of Taipei and New Taipei.
Chen said the country is still under level three alert and there are no plans to raise it to level four alert yet. He said apart from the daily numbers, another important criteria is that the number of those without unidentified cases need to be more than 50%, so he said …
