UK PM vows to level up nation’s economy

Doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine being delivered to the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island in Antarctica on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to change the direction of the British economy, shifting away from its reliance on cheap imported labour, as he shrugged off the ongoing fuel, food and industry crises as "merely a function of growth and economic revival".

In a speech to end the Conservative Party's four-day annual conference in Manchester, Johnson on Wednesday night pledged that his top team will get on with "the job of uniting and levelling up across the UK", calling it "the greatest project that any government can embark on", reports Xinhua news agency. The Prime Minister vowed to address economic inequality to provide greater opportunities around the whole country, by carrying out new road, rail and technology infrastructure projects after "decades of ducked decisions". Johnson said he would end "decades of drift and dither" and tackle "long-term structural weaknesses in the British economy", especially a reliance on cheap imported labour.

He said there needed to be more investment in people, skills and facilities to create a "high-wage, high-skilled, high-productivity" economy. To alleviate the disruption to the education system caused by the pandemic, he announced a "levelling-up premium" worth up to 3,000 pounds ($4,076) to encourage science and maths teachers to underprivileged areas of the country.

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Sweden stops Moderna jab for under 30-yr-olds

Sweden has stopped administering the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax to people under 30 years of age due to a suspected connection to side effects. In a statement, the Swedish Public Health Agency referred to a preliminary analysis of data from Sweden and other Nordic countries that indicates the vaccine may be associated with an increased risk of heart muscle inflammation (myocarditis), and inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart (pericarditis), reports Xinhua news agency. These conditions were especially prevalent among males after the second dose.

39,69,41
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

23,66,76,772
Total no. of cases worldwide

48,32,035
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins