China’s central bank has started testing its official digital currency, pressing ahead with its plan to roll out a virtual money payment system, days after Facebook-backed Libra scaled back its ambitions to become a global currency. The Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBC), China’s central bank, said that the research and development work of China’s official digital currency, dubbed as DC/EP, is proceeding steadily, and the internal pilot tests are carried out in four cities and will be carried out in scenarios of the 2022 Winter Olympics Games in Beijing
British and EU officials were scheduled to restart Brexit trade talks on Monday after a break because of the coronavirus, which is making an end-of-year deal look even more unlikely. After a first round in early March negotiations were suspended for six weeks as officials focused on the deadly virus sweeping Europe. The June deadline set by London to assess the chances of an agreement is now fast approaching
A truckload of medical masks and protective surgical gowns were destroyed when a tractor-trailer caught fire on a highway in Tennessee, news outlets reported. First responders told WKRN-TV at the scene in Smith County on Saturday that N95 masks and special hospital gowns were among the items ruined. Shortages of these masks, which filter out 95% of all airborne particles, have created high demand among medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. It was unclear where the shipment was headed
Slovakia has sent 300 thousand face masks and disinfection to Italy, a European country that has been seriously hit by the pandemic of the coronavirus. The aid onboard of a Slovak government plane took off from Bratislava’s international airport on Monday. Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok tweeted the aid is a symbol of European solidarity in the fight against Covid-19
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday to discuss regional developments in light of the novel coronavirus. On his first official meeting with Zarif in a year, Assad expressed condolences to Iran, the regional epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic with 5,209 deaths from Covid-19. The Islamic republic says it has recorded 83,505 infections, while Syria has declared 39 cases, including three deaths
Bangladesh on Monday reported ten more deaths due to the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of the Covid-19 fatalities to 101, as experts warned that it was just the “tip of the iceberg” in view of the growing number of cases in the country. DGHSs Additional Director General Professor Nasima Sultana said that 2,779 COVID-19 suspects were examined in the last 24 hours and 492 were tested positive, the highest so far in a single day since the first detection
