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Only 13% of testing sites for fully vaccinated critical workers to free themselves from isolation are up and running, the UK government has admitted.
My colleagues Heather Stewart and Aubrey Allegretti an effort to avoid a major hit to the economy due to hundreds of thousands of people needing to quarantine after being identified as a close contact of a positive Covid case, the government set a target of establishing 2,000 sites where critical workers could get tested daily instead of having to isolate.
Related: Only 13% of Covid test centres for critical workers are open, No 10 admits
China’s new envoy to the US, Qin Gang, struck a conciliatory tone in his debut press conference upon arrival in Washington DC yesterday.
“I believe that the door of China-US relations, which is already open, cannot be closed,” Qin said, adding he would “endeavour to bring [bilateral] relations back on track, turning the way for the two countries to get along with each other … from a possibility into a reality.”
Related: Qin Gang, China’s new ambassador to US, strikes conciliatory note