Britain on Thursday decided to reimpose 14-day quarantine on people travelling from France and the Netherlands, urging Paris to quickly announce a reciprocal measure, news wires reported. The move is expected to spark a mass exodus among the estimated half a million British holidaymakers currently in France, after a rise in coronavirus cases there.

The British economy is now in recession after contracting a record 20.4% in the second quarter as the COVID-19 crisis took hold, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday. The British economy's decline is about twice as large as the falls recently reported by Germany, France or the US.

Iceland reinstated as of today some restrictions on public gatherings after finding at least two new infection clusters in the country, the government said in a statement. “The measures we are introducing now are intended to have the effect of sparing us the need for more drastic restrictions later,” said Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir.

British PM Boris Johnson announced on Friday that he would postpone the next stage of lockdown easing for at least two weeks due to a pick-up in Covid-19 infection rates.  “On Saturday, 1 August, we had hoped to reopen in England a number of the higher-risk settings that had remained closed  Today I am afraid we are postponing those changes for at least a fortnight,” Johnson said at a news conference.

Britain is raising the self-isolation period for people who test positive for the coronavirus or have symptoms to 10 days from seven days, news wires reported.

Significantly more members of the Italian Mafia live in Switzerland than previously assumed, the annual report for 2019 of the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) said. Published last week, it confirms an estimate by Italian prosecutors and experts that around 400 Mafiosi live in Switzerland.

Britain on Saturday abruptly imposed a two-week quarantine on all travellers arriving from Spain after a surge of coronavirus cases, news wires reported. The British foreign ministry also announced it was recommending against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, a move likely to prompt tour operators to cancel package holidays and trigger claims against insurers.

British PM Boris Johnson will seek to play down tensions with Scotland during a visit on Thursday, news wires reported. The ties that bind the kingdom’s constituent parts - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - have been badly strained by Brexit and the coronavirus outbreak.

Switzerland expanded on Wednesday the number of territories on its watchlist of coronavirus hot spots to 42, with arrivals from it must enter a ten-day quarantine, health authorities. Since 6 July people entering Switzerland from a country with an increased risk of infection have been legally mandated to go into quarantine or face a 10,000 Swiss franc fine.

There is no evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 Brexit referendum and Britain’s spies did not take their eyes off the ball on Russia, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday.