Fed’s Caution
The US Federal Reserve’s decision to lower its benchmark interest rate to a range of 4.25-4.50 per cent marks a turning point in its monetary policy.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that the government does not expect to make changes to coronavirus lockdown restrictions this week, according to the report.
Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from coronavirus, said on Monday that a meeting of scientific advisers would take place to review evidence relating to the current lockdown restrictions, reports the BBC.
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During a press conference, Raab said, “We don’t expect to make any changes to the measures currently in place at that point and we won’t until we’re confident, as confident as we realistically can be, that any such changes can be safely made”.
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Raab said it was “crucially important that we do not take our eye off the ball or the public’s focus” off social distancing measures.
Earlier, PM Johnson was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital on the advice of his doctor, after continuing to have a cough and high temperature 10 days after testing positive for the virus.
Johnson was back on his feet by Friday, taking short walks between periods of rest, in what his office described as the early stage of recovery.
The number of deaths in the UK hospitals has risen 11,347 – up by 717 since Sunday.
The Department of Health said a further 4,342 people had tested positive for coronavirus as of on Monday night, taking the overall number of cases to 89,571.
China, the epicenter of the virus, reported the highest number of new daily coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks, driven by a rise in infected travellers arriving from overseas and underscoring challenges Beijing faces in preventing a second wave of COVID-19.
The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, has recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 than any other country, nearly 22,000 as of Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, globally, nearly 1.85 million people are infected, while the death toll is over 1.14 lakh.
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