Switzerland’s southern neighbour Italy is going to open its borders for tourists from the EU and Schengen zone countries on 3 June and from that date a 14-day mandatory quarantine period would be scrapped. But even though people from Switzerland will be allowed to go to Italy, Italians won’t be able to enter Switzerland, news wires reported.

A team of 25,000 contact tracers will make their first phone calls within hours - to track down people who will be told to self-isolate under the new test and trace scheme in England, the BBC reported. Tracers will text, email or call people who test positive with coronavirus and ask who they have had contact with. Any of those contacts deemed at risk of infection will be told to isolate for 14 days, even if they are not sick.

UK shoppers face more queuing and limited ability to try products when England’s high street retailers, department stores and shopping centres reopen next month after the coronavirus lockdown.

A banker went on trial in Switzerland on Tuesday charged with failing to sound the alarm over millions of dollars linked to scandal-tainted Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. The former anti-money-laundering executive at private bank Coutts & Co Ltd denies any wrongdoing. Reuters is not naming the defendant due to Swiss laws on privacy in court proceedings.

British government is doing its best to try to shift focus away from a row about a senior aide's travels during the coronavirus lockdown to its plans to further ease restrictions in England, news wires reported. Dominic Cummings claims he had acted "reasonably" and legally when he drove hundreds of miles from home in March.

The United Kingdom has drawn up plans to require employers to cover 20% to 30% of furloughed employees’ wages from August to reduce the vast burden of the coronavirus crisis on government finances, The Times newspaper reported.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted calls on Saturday from opposition parties to sack adviser Dominic Cummings after he traveled 400 km to northern England while his wife showed COVID-19 symptoms. According to the Guardian and the Mirror newspapers, Cummings, who masterminded the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union during the Brexit referendum, had travelled from London to his parents' home in County Durham while he had coronavirus symptoms.

The UK government decided to introduce a COVID-19 quarantine for all travellers arriving from overseas, which will enter in force from 8 June, interior minister Priti Patel announced on Friday. All international arrivals, including returning Britons, will be required to self-isolate for 14 days and provide details of where they will be staying to the authorities. 

The United Kingdom will later on Friday spell out details of its plans for a COVID-19 quarantine for travellers arriving from overseas, a measure that airlines have warned will devastate their industry.

An antibody study suggests that 17% of people in London and around 5% cent in England have tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced on Thursday. The study was led by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS).