News

News 22^nd September
Vaccines may be available by the end of the year.  But only in small numbers.  The Government has ordered four different types.  It depends on which one is most successful and completed the trials.  At the moment, the Government does not know which vaccines will be successful.
Covax is a plan to share vaccines between rich and poor countries.  There are 156 countries involved (Trump has refused to take part) – they have agreed to provide vaccines to health workers and social care workers in the poor countries.  This will happen as soon as the virus is available. There are 64 rich countries involved and they expect another 38 to join soon.  This cooperation is really important and the World Health Organisation has said it is vital for all countries to work together.
In the UK, the train operators have franchises – which means that they are licensed by the government to run trains in different parts of the country.  The Government gets some of the profits.  The system was not working very well – before the virus and some companies wanted to pull out.  In March, the Government told people not to travel on trains and so the whole system nearly collapsed.  There is now a temporary arrangement to try to keep some trains running but the Government says that a completely new system will be brought in.  The Government wants travellers to pay more but at the moment it is just trying to keep the rail companies in business.
Trump claims (wrongly) that the virus does not affect young people and that the USA is doing a great job against the virus.  He denies the problem and does not wear a mask  and has rallies where people are not at a distance and do not wear masks.  Now USA has nearly 200 thousand deaths and is 11th worst on deaths.