
Richard Partington
More than half of furloughed jobs in the UK are at the highest risk of automation as the Covid crisis accelerates workplace technology change, driving up redundancies and inequality across the country, according to a report.
The two-year commission on workers and technology, chaired by the Labour MP Yvette Cooper, found that workers in sectors hit hardest by the pandemic – such as hospitality, leisure and retail – face a “double whammy” as their jobs are at the most risk of being replaced by machines.
The findings from the commission, organised by the Fabian Society and the Community trade union, show that as many as 61% of jobs furloughed in the first half of this year were in sectors where automation is most likely to lead to job losses:
Dutch prime minister announces five-week lockdown
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until 19 January.
“We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a somber Rutte said in a televised address to the nation.
As Rutte spoke from his office in The Hague, protesters could be heard blowing whistles outside.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Het Torentje (the prime minister’s office) during his speech to the Dutch people about the tightening of the corona rules. Photograph: Robin Utrecht/REX/Shutterstock
“The reality is that this is is not an innocent flu as some people — like the demonstrators outside — think,” Rutte said. “But a virus that can hit everybody hard.”
From Tuesday, all non-essential shops will close until Jan. 19 along with businesses such as hair salons, museums and theaters. All schools and universities will have to switch to remote learning from Wednesday. Child daycare centers will be closed to all except children of key workers.
The government also urged people to receive a maximum of two guests over the age of 13 per day, but relaxed the rule slightly for 24-26 December, saying three people can visit on those normally festive days.
UK detects new Covid strain
Here is our full story on the new coronavirus strain that has been detected in the UK:
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest global developments for the next few hours.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until 19 January.
“We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a somber Rutte said in a televised address to the nation.
Meanwhile in the UK, a new strain of coronavirus that has shown up in England’s genomic surveillance in the past two months may have spread the virus in the South of England. The strain contains a number of different mutations and has been detected in parts of the south where cases of the virus are rising fastest, according to the health secretary, Matt Hancock.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- Canada began vaccinating its citizens against Covid-19 today, following the UK and New York state. Five frontline workers in Ontario were among the first Canadians to receive the vaccine at one of Toronto’s hospitals.
- It would take almost a year to vaccinate the entire UK population against Covid-19, even with no interruptions in vaccine supply, leading scientists have said.
- Intensive care units filled to capacity across California this weekend, as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to rise at alarming rates.Hospitals in the San Joaquin Valley, the state’s agricultural hub, reported on Saturday its ICU bed capacity had dropped to zero for the first time. The region’s capacity fluttered back to 1.5% on Monday, but the situation remained precarious.
- Turkey’s president, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, has said Turkey will impose a five-day full lockdown beginning on 31 December, as official data showed new daily coronavirus deaths hit a record 229. Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting, said the stay at home order would begin at 9pm on New Year’s Eve and run to 4 January.
- France has reported 3,063 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Sunday’s 11,533, but the number of people admitted to hospital with the disease went up for the third consecutive day.
- An intensive care unit nurse who became the first person in the US to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Monday called it a sign that “healing is coming”. Sandra Lindsay, who has treated some of the sickest Covid-19 patients for months, was given the vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in the New York City borough of Queens, an early centre of the country’s Covid-19 outbreak.
- Poland faces a real threat of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, health minister Adam Niedzielski said on Monday, adding he would recommend that current restrictions continue until at least 17 January.
- The UK reported 20,263 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, taking the total figure over the past seven days to 131,708, up 21.6% compared with the previous seven-day number, official data showed.