US recession began in February as pandemic hit country, senior economists say

The US economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus pandemic hit the country, a group of senior economists have said.

The economists said that employment, income and spending peaked in February and then fell sharply afterwards as the outbreak shut down businesses across the country, marking the start of the downturn after nearly 11 full years of economic growth.

A committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a trade group, determines when recessions begin and end – broadly defined as “a decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months.”

“The unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions,” the NBER panel said.

On Friday, the US government said employers had added 2.5 million jobs in May, an unexpected gain which suggested the recession could be short-lived.

Even if the recession does technically end, most economists expect a full recovery to take two years or more, with the unemployment rate likely to be 10 per cent or higher at the end of this year.

‘This is far from over’: WHO warns against world dropping its guard to virus

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries to press on with efforts to contain coronavirus, noting that the pandemic is worsening globally and has not yet peaked in central America.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said more than 136,000 cases were reported worldwide on Sunday – the most in a single day so far.

“More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,” he told an online briefing.

Dr Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert, said there was a need to focus on preventing second peaks of the virus as infections in central American countries such as Guatemala were still rising.

“I think this is a time of great concern,” Dr Ryan said, calling for international support for the region.

Meanwhile, Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said that a “comprehensive approach” was essential in South America.

“This is far from over,” Ms van Kerkhove warned.

Five-mile travel limit could remain in place through summer in Wales, Drakeford suggests

The five-mile travel limit in Wales is likely to continue into July and may remain in place throughout the summer, the country’s first minister has indicated.

Mark Drakeford said he did not expect the current advice on staying within a five-mile radius to change this month and he could not be certain if the advice would still be around in “another six or nine or 12 weeks”.

However, Mr Drakeford said he hoped to offer “some relief” to Wales’ tourism industry later in the summer, although he warned it would likely be restricted to “self-contained accommodation” like cottages and holiday homes.

France reports 54 new coronavirus deaths

France has reported 54 new coronavirus deaths, bringing its overall death toll to 29,209, health authorities have said.

In a statement, the health ministry added that the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 had continued a long-running decline.

Canada to ease border restrictions set up for coronavirus pandemic

Canada will slightly ease border restrictions set up to manage the coronavirus pandemic and will allow immediate family members of citizens or permanent residents to come to the country, prime minister Justin Trudeau has said.

Mr Trudeau stressed that anyone entering the country would be required to quarantine for 14 days or face serious penalties.

Marco Mendicino, the immigration minister, said the limited exception would apply to spouses, common law partners, dependent children, parents and legal guardians. 

He added they would have to stay in Canada for at least 15 days.

Canada had allowed only Canadians and permanent residents into the country under a border closure to nonessential travel imposed in March.

Italy reports 65 new coronavirus deaths

Italy has reported 65 new coronavirus deaths, up from 53 on the daily tally yesterday, as new cases rose by 280 over the last 24 hour period, the Civil Protection Agency has said.

The northern region of Lombardy, where Italy’s outbreak was first identified, remains by far the worst affected of the country’s 20 regions and accounts for 194 of the 280 new cases reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, there were 283 people in intensive care on Monday, down from 287 on Sunday, maintaining a long-running decline.

WHO still believes asymptomatic Covid-19 spread is ‘rare’

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it still believes the spread of coronavirus from people without symptoms is “rare”, despite warnings from numerous experts that asymptomatic transmission could explain why the pandemic has been so hard to contain.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19 said at a press briefing on Monday that many countries had reported cases of spread from people who are asymptomatic, or those with no clinical symptoms.

However, when questioned in more detail about these cases, Ms Van Kerkhove said many of them turn out to have mild disease, or unusual symptoms.

The WHO has maintained that asymptomatic spread is not a key driver of the pandemic and probably accounts for about 6 per cent of spread at most.

Ms Van Kerkhove said that based on data from countries where people with no Covid-19 symptoms have been tracked over a long period to see if they spread the disease, there were very few cases of spread.

“We are constantly looking at this data and we’re trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question,” she said. 

“It still appears to be rare that asymptomatic individuals actually transmit onward.”

Matt Hancock has defended the two-metre social distancing rule and insisted businesses will have to operate within the restrictions.

His comments came after the hospitality industry warned pubs and restaurants might not be able to reopen if the recommended distance is not reduced.

“We keep the two-metre rule under review all the time and Sage have been doing some work on this recently,” Mr Hancock told the press briefing.

“But, ultimately, it isn’t the rule that’s the challenge to the opening of hospitality in a safe way, it’s the virus.”

The health secretary said that for both schools and the economy it was a matter of working out how to open in a way that does not lead to an increased spread of the virus.

“That is going to require ingenuity, you can already see the ingenuity in lots of areas of the economy – bars that have turned themselves into takeaways, all sorts of different ways that people are providing services and making their business work in a way that is consistent with social distancing,” he said.

“We’ve got to be innovative, we’ve got to be thoughtful about this.”

Hancock insists it is safe to send loved ones to care homes

Matt Hancock has insisted it is safe for people to send their loved ones into care homes in England following concerns about the number of outbreaks in such settings.

“With all of the measures that we’ve put in place over the past few months, all of the billions of pounds extra that we’ve put in, it’s clear that the epidemic in care homes is coming under control,” Mr Hancock said.

“Even those care homes where there are cases have very strong infection control procedures in place.

“In fact, if you look at the proportion of people in the UK who have sadly died in care homes, it is significantly lower than in comparable countries across Europe.”

Matt Hancock has said coronavirus is “in retreat” in the UK so the government will be able to proceed with its plans to ease lockdown, including a proposed reopening of non-essential shops from 15 June.

When asked about this comment at the Downing Street briefing, Mr Hancock said the figures on deaths, recorded positive tests and an almost 50 per cent fall in the number of new care home outbreaks were “good news”.

“When you look across the board, it is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country,” he said.

“But we must be vigilant and we must be cautious, and we are taking a safety-first approach.”

The health secretary added: “It means that we can proceed with our plan of making some changes, for instance looking towards the proposals that have been made next week on the retail sector, and that people can have confidence to take their children to school in the three years that we’ve opened so far.”

On the new social care support task force, newly-appointed chairman David Pearson told the Downing Street press conference: “The taskforce will bring together the concerted and determined actions of central and local government with care providers.

“Our focus will be on stopping infection whilst trying to ensure the wellbeing of all people who receive care and support, whether they live in care homes or at home.

He added: “Social care has a crucial role to play in supporting the people who receive care and support and their carers, and our job is to harness our efforts as we go through the various phases of this pandemic and support social care in its crucial role.”

More details on the health secretary’s testing announcement

At the Downing Street press briefing, Mr Hancock said adult care homes in England would now be included in the coronavirus testing regime.

“We’ve now sent over a million test kits to almost 9,000 elderly care homes and the care homes themselves asked that they have the flexibility to do the test when it works for them,” he said.

“The good news is that the test results so far do not show a significant rise in the number of positive cases despite going through and testing all of the residents and staff.”

On extending the scheme, the health secretary said: “We will now make sure that we do all of this in working age care homes as well.

“I can announce that from today all remaining adult care homes in England will be able to order the whole care home testing service for residents and staff.

“This service will benefit residents and staff in over 6,000 more care homes.”

UK is ‘winning the battle’ against coronavirus after recording 55 deaths

Matt Hancock has said the UK is “winning the battle” against coronavirus after health officials reported 55 new deaths today – the lowest daily number since before lockdown began in March.

The health secretary also announced that full Covid-19 testing would be available in all adult care homes, adding eligibility to 6,000 more homes.

Health secretary Matt Hancock is using today’s Downing Street coronavirus briefing to talk about a new social care task force, which will manage the next phase of the government’s response to the pandemic.

Earlier today, Mr Hancock said David Pearson, former chief of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, would be leading the task force.

The health secretary described Mr Pearson as an “eminent social care expert” with “decades of experience of leadership in both social care and public health”.

Public confidence in UK government is lowest in world

Public confidence in the UK government’s handling of coronavirus has fallen to the lowest in the world, according to a new international poll.

A YouGov poll found just 41 per cent of British adults thought Boris Johnson’s government was handling the outbreak well, compared to 56 per cent who thought it was not – giving an overall rating of minus 15 per cent.

Out of the 22 major countries surveyed, only Mexico’s government had a similarly poor approval rating.

Oil giant BP to cut 10,000 jobs due to coronavirus

BP has told staff it plans to cut 10,000 jobs from its global workforce due to coronavirus just weeks after increasing the dividend it pays to shareholders.

The company said the move would “significantly impact senior levels” of management in the business, with its top leadership roles to be cut by a third.

It said the majority of the redundancies would be made by the end of this year, after the business took a major hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The cuts are part of plans for the business to slash its operating costs by $2.5bn (£1.9bn).

“We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP – most by the end of this year,” Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, told staff in an email.

“The majority of people affected will be in office-based jobs.

“We are protecting the frontline of the company and, as always, prioritising safe and reliable operations.”

The company employs 70,000 people across the globe, meaning the cuts will slash the size of its workforce by 14 per cent.

Northern Ireland has recorded no new coronavirus deaths in the country for the second day in a row, according to official data.

Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister, said she was very pleased with the “positive situation” but added officials would remain “cautious, careful and vigilant in the time ahead after the hard struggle which has been a hard struggle for everyone”.