UK rolls out 2 new rapid Covid-19 tests to increase testing capacity

Two new tests, both ready to identify the novel coronavirus in only an hour and a half, will be turned out to medical clinics, care homes and research centers over the UK to expand testing limit and recognize Covid-19 and winter influenza in the coming months, the British government said on Monday.
One of the tests, the hour and a half LamPORE swab tests, will be provided by Oxford Nanopore, an Oxford University turn off helped to establish by Indian-cause CEO Gordon Sanghera, who trusts it likewise offers an "available worldwide testing arrangement".
We are respected to have an influence in battling Covid-19 in the UK, and setting up the nation for the winter infection season. Since the time we established Oxford Nanopore, our central goal has been to make problematic, elite innovation that has a significant, positive effect on society, Sanghera said.
Oxford Nanopore will make 450,000 hour and a half LamPORE swab tests accessible across grown-up care settings and labs in Britain from one week from now. These tests will have the option to process swab and salivation tests to identify the nearness of Covid-19 out of 60 to an hour and a half.
LamPORE can possibly convey an exceptionally compelling and, vitally, available worldwide testing arrangement, for Covid-19 as well as for a scope of different microorganisms. We are enchanted to be working with the UK government to help and enable our networks to viably oversee testing at a national and limited level, included Sanghera.
The UK's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the new test has a similar affectability as the broadly utilized PCR swab test, however can be utilized to process swabs in labs, just as on the spot through spring up labs.
The work area GridION machine can process up to 15,000 tests every day, or the palm-sized MinION can process up to 2,000 tests per day for organization in a close network spring up lab.
The other new fast test, which utilizes DNA to recognize infections, will be turned out across NHS medical clinics from September, with 5,000 DNA machines provided by DnaNudge to give 5.8 million tests in the coming months.

The DNA Nudgebox machines will be turned out across NHS emergency clinics in the UK to break down DNA in nose swabs, giving a positive or negative outcome for Covid-19 out of an hour and a half, at the purpose of care. The machines will process up to 15 tests on the detect every day without the requirement for a research facility.

2.8 mn people seek job-related benefit claims spike in UK; up by 25% in May

The number of people in the UK claiming job-related benefits increased by a monthly 23.3 per cent in May to 2.8 million, according to official data released Tuesday.
The level of the claimant count as measured by Britain's Office for National Statistics is also 125.9 per cent higher than in March, the month in which the country was put into lockdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The claimant count includes both those people who are employed with low income or hours and those who are actually unemployed.
Further indications of the lockdown's impact on the British labor market came with the news that the number of people on payrolls fell by 2.1 per cent, or 612,000 people, between March and May in 2020.

The statistics agency also said the number of weekly hours worked in the three months to April 2020 was 959.9 million, down a record 94.2 million from the previous year. The statistics agency also revealed that in the three months to April, total pay fell in real terms for the first time since January 2018.

Tata's Taj look to sell hotel assets as it braces for slump in economy

International News

The luxury hotel chain controlled by India’s Tata Group is looking to sell some assets and avoid owning new properties in an effort to further pare debt, as it braces for a slump in consumer spending.
Indian Hotels Co. Ltd., Tata’s listed firm that operates the Taj brand, plans to dispose of certain budget inns in the nation’s non-metro areas and lease them back for a fee, Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and chief executive officer said in an interview.“We are moving our focus to more management contracts rather than constructing hotels of our own,” Chhatwal said. “We have no plans to put our legacy and flagship properties under sale and lease back.”
The Mumbai-based company’s measures to cut costs and liabilities come at a time growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy has cooled to a five-year low, while a lingering shadow-bank crisis damps discretionary spending. The nation’s biggest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., reported the worst sales drop since 2012 in July. Besides the slowdown, the grounding of Jet Airways India Ltd. has also hit Indian Hotels, forcing it to write-off some dues.
World Economy Edges Closer to a Recession as Trade Dread Deepens
The chain, which operates New York’s The Pierre and St. James Court in the U.K., has been reducing debt in the past few years by selling assets including apartments purchased for Tata Group’s executives. Consolidated net debt stood at 20 billion rupees ($282 million) at the end of March, down from as high as 31 billion rupees two years earlier, according to the hospitality firm.

 The efforts to pare borrowings at the hotel chain are also part of a wider drive at India’s biggest conglomerate. Tata Motors Ltd., the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, has said it is looking at options for the struggling British luxury brands...Read More

Kerala's tourism footfall in 2018 at half its population: Minister

Economy & Policy:

Kerala collected Rs 36,528.01 crore as revenues from tourism last year: an increase of Rs 2,874.33 crore over last year.

Over 16.7 million tourists, both domestic and foreign, visited Kerala in 2018, compared to 15.76 million the previous year, recording an increase of 5.93 per cent.
Of the total footfalls, 1.09 million were foreign tourists. The share of revenue from foreign visitors touched Rs 8,764.46 crore. There was also a spurt in arrival of domestic tourists to the southern state. United Kingdom (UK) accounted for the largest number of foreign visitors, at 200,000, followed by the United States, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia. The number of visitors from other European countries such as Sweden and Italy also rose during the period.

In the first quarter of calender year 2018, tourist arrivals to the state recorded a 12.3 per cent growth of foreign visitors and a 20 per cent rise of domestic tourists.
The Nipah outbreak in May and the floods in August affected arrivals.
“The number of tourists who visited Kerala in 2018 touched almost half the state’s population. This impressive growth has been achieved against the century’s most severe deluge,” said Kerala's tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran.

"It was through hard work and determination of the Tourism Department, tourism trade and the coordinated efforts of other government departments that the state had been able to achieve this impressive growth,” said Secretary of Kerala Tourism department Rani George.

 Tourism Director Shri P Bala Kiran said tourist arrivals in the state last year had been both inspiring.