Plus, the small business owners who could lose everything
| Concern over stalled vaccine programmes |
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| | | Other big stories top this morning's news agenda - namely the additional charges brought following the death of Floyd George in police custody in Minneapolis, which has sparked protests across the US and around the world, and the police identification of a new suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, in 2007. But the severity of the coronavirus pandemic continues to be felt in new ways. There's a warning millions of children could die from preventable disease because of disruptions to vaccination programmes. At least 68 countries have been affected, with some stopping inoculations completely, after the World Health Organization (WHO) advised their suspension to help slow the spread of coronavirus. Now the WHO is one of several groups expressing concern about the long-term impact of stalled vaccination programmes. "Measles is on the rise... diphtheria, cholera," United Nations Children's Fund executive director Henrietta Fore says. In a clinic in Niamey, Niger, our global health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar finds a once-packed waiting room quiet . The country has reported almost 1,000 coronavirus infections but four new cases of polio, which can cause paralysis or even death, have been identified since February. Zeinabou Tahirou, who has brought her daughter to the clinic, says: "I was so scared to come here because of the coronavirus. But health workers have told me how important these immunisations are."
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| | | | | Layla Barnes is one among many thousands of small business owners left financially and emotionally devastated by more than 10 weeks of government-imposed lockdown. She was forced to close her Doncaster-based beauty therapy and training business which was profitable in February before lockdown began. Yet the government's excluded Layla, 30, and her limited company from any form of crisis-related support, forcing her on to benefits of £408 per month. She's running up thousands of pounds in credit card debt to try to preserve her business. "I'd spent all my life's savings - about £60,000 - on equipment and machines. I moved in with Mum and Dad... in the same box-room I moved out from aged 17." | |
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| | Andy Verity | Economics correspondent, BBC News | |
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| | | | Most papers lead on the police identification of a new suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. However, Boris Johnson is under fire for insisting that travellers arriving in the UK should quarantine for a fortnight. The Times leads on top scientists complaining the plan makes "no sense". The PM also faces criticism from Tory backbenchers "for forcing 'unnecessary economic isolation' on Britain", reports the Daily Telegraph. The Metro says the number of people to have died in the UK with coronavirus has passed 50,000, after new figures from Scotland were added to data from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, the Financial Times says the prospect of a no-deal Brexit is fuelling concerns over a shortage of Covid-19 drugs in the new year. Read the review. | |
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