Coronavirus Daily Round-Up: 26/3/20

A long awaited return of the Dundee to London City flights has been pushed back till June amid the coronavirus outbreak.

HIAL - which owns the city of discovery airport - is to ground all planes from Sunday.

That's the day a new route to the centre of the capital was to start, but bosses at airline operator Loganair have confirmed this has been suspended for at least two months.

"A Loganair spokesman said: In conjunction with Dundee City Council, we have taken the decision to suspend the route during April and May.

"We cannot comment further at this stage on its future."

It's not yet clear what this will mean for the long term future of the route.

Elsewhere controversial parking charges in Angus have been temporarily scrapped due to covid-19.

Council bosses say it will allow community enforcement staff to be re-deployed to help deliver "vital services to our communities."

Birth partners will no longer be able to visit antenatal and postnatal wards at Tayside hospitals.

The health board says the move is to protect mothers and newborn babies.

NHS Tayside’s Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Claire Pearce, said, “We understand that suspending visiting will impact on families and patients and we know that not being able to visit family members whilst they are in hospital may be upsetting.

"However, this will allow us to keep women and their babies safe and healthy at this time.

“We would like to thank the public for their support and understanding regarding some of the changes which are ongoing in our maternity services at present.

"All our midwives are working very hard and are absolutely committed to continuing to provide a high quality patient-centred maternity service.”

Positive News:

A Perthshire art teacher is urging youngsters to get creative from inside their homes.

Lisa Cochrane is using Facebook Live to share her daily lessons on painting and print making.

National:

Self-employed people are being offered cash by the UK government to help them through the coronavirus crisis.

A taxable grant - worth 80% of their average profits of up to £2,500 a month will be available by June.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak's explained who it's available to.

"Only those who are already in self-employment who have a tax return for 2019 will be able to apply.

"95% of people who are majority self-employed will be able to benefit from this scheme."

Over to Scottish government officials and we’re being told up to 50,000 people north of the border could be infected with coronavirus:

That's what Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood announced today

There’ve also been three more deaths linked to Covid-19 here - taking the total to 25.

There are now 894 positive cases in Scotland - 116 are in Tayside and Fife.

Hear all the latest news from across Tayside, Perthshire and Angus on Tay FM. Listen on FM, via our Rayo app, DAB, or smart speaker.