Coronavirus latest: Covid infections will rise in England after reopening, says minister
Russian higher educational institutions are expected to allow foreign students who have been inoculated with any vaccine to study in the country. “Universities will have a common policy on this issue. I think we will accept any vaccine,” said Pavel Shevtsov, deputy head of Rossotrudnichestvo, a foreign ministry agency overseeing students.
Brazil’s top prosecutor has requested an investigation of president Jair Bolsonaro over allegations he failed to act on concerns of corruption in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines from India. The president has been accused of dereliction of duty over a R$1.6bn ($320m) deal to acquire 20m jabs of Covaxin.
Saudi Arabians cannot travel to Ethiopia, Vietnam or the United Arab Emirates due to a surge in coronavirus cases in those countries, the interior ministry said. The ministry said travel to Saudi Arabia was also suspended from the three countries, which join previously announced Afghanistan on the prohibited list.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said British travellers with two Covid-19 vaccinations would be able to travel to Germany “in the foreseeable future” without quarantining. Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, said he was “confident” those given an Indian-made Oxford/AstraZeneca jab would not face problems this summer.
GlaxoSmithKline’s board has backed current chief executive Emma Walmsley, rejecting demands from Elliott Management to appoint new directors. Its shares have underperformed rivals, and observers have said the performance of its vaccines business during the Covid-19 pandemic has been lacklustre.
Oxford Nanopore, one of Britain’s most highly valued tech start-ups, will use an “anti-takeover” structure in its upcoming IPO so it can fend off foreign bidders. The company, spun out of Oxford university in 2005, has had a breakthrough year after its DNA sequencing technology tracked the spread of Covid-19 variants.
The market has been bidding up UK travel companies in advance of a possible easing of pandemic restrictions. While adjustments, discontinued operations, separately disclosed items and one-off charges made Stagecoach’s full-year results almost incomprehensible, the balance sheet moved back into £61m of positive assets.
UK-based Dixons Carphone’s mission to become a successful “omnichannel” retail business has gained impetus through the lockdowns, as housebound consumers increased purchases of televisions, laptops and video game consoles. The result has been a 103 per cent increase in online electrical sales to £4.7bn.