UK unveils plan to fly home stranded Britons

Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Monday announced a partnership between the United Kingdom government and airlines to repatriate its citizens stranded abroad due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Tens of thousands of people will be flown home by airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet and Titan Airways on chartered planes.

Around the world, thousands of Britons remain desperate to get home-but airports have been closed, borders shut and cities have been placed in lockdown.

"Where commercial flights are no longer running the government will provide support for special charter flights to help British nationals back home," he said.

Britain's temporary hospitals are seeking volunteers from the airlines, calling on cabin crew members who are currently grounded to use their first-aid skills and calm manner to help get the new NHS (National Health Service) Nightingale field hospital open and operating.

Britain is setting up three new hospitals in London, Birmingham and Manchester, which it is naming after nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale.

NHS England said many airline staff members were first aid trained and already had security clearance. The workers would be changing beds and performing other nonclinical tasks and helping doctors and nurses working on the wards, the NHS said. Earlier in the day, EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of planes but said it would continue operating rescue flights.

A new study of the coronavirus outbreak in 11 European countries finds that 59,000 lives have been saved so far by government interventions.

Scientists from Imperial College London have assessed the impact of social distancing, school closures, lockdowns and the banning of large gatherings. Using a new model, or computer simulation, they calculate that between 21,000 and 120,000 deaths will have been prevented up to the end of March.

The outbreak in the UK appears to be "slowing", a leading scientist and government adviser has said. Neil Ferguson said there were "early signs" social distancing measures had started reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Some 20,000 former NHS staff have returned to work to help the fight against the virus, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed in a video posted online. The government had appealed to retired staff to come back to work.

Johnson, who has been working from home after testing positive for the disease, also thanked the 750,000 volunteers who had offered to help the NHS during this time.

The UK government said it was ramping up testing of NHS frontline workers, but the Labour Party has called on the government to scale up testing to "sufficient levels", citing the example of Germany, which is reportedly testing up to 500,000 people each week.

New official figures show a total of 134,946 people have been tested for the virus in the UK, with 22,141 positive cases so far. A total of 1,408 people across the country have died from COVID-19, including 180 new fatalities.

Prince Charles is now out of self-isolation, following his positive test last week, the BBC reported.

It also emerged on Monday that Johnson's key advisor, Dominic Cummings, is now self-isolating at home after developing coronavirus symptoms.

The impact of the outbreak on British business continued to be felt as thousands of jobs were put at risk when retailer BrightHouse and restaurant chain Carluccio's both filed for administration.

Sky News reported that the two companies were in court on Monday to formalize insolvency proceedings after closures triggered by the virus outbreak tipped them into bankruptcy.

Spain's foreign minister, Arancha Gonzalez, has said the country's latest national figures show the upwards curve of the virus appears to be flattening out.

The Spanish authorities have confirmed 6,398 more cases of coronavirus. This brings the total to 85,195.

Moscow imposed strict isolation measures on Monday after many residents ignored official requests to stay indoors. Italy is second to the United States in terms of total confirmed infections with nearly 98,000, but still has the highest death toll, with nearly 10,800.