UK minister: Holiday plans a gamble

Britons booking a summer holiday are taking a chance on the direction of the coronavirus outbreak, Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Wednesday.

European travel company TUI said on Wednesday there would still be a summer holiday season this year and it was ready to resume providing holidays. Britain's Foreign Office is advising against all travel abroad.

"Right now you can't travel abroad. If you are booking it then you are clearly, by the very nature, taking a chance on where the direction of this virus goes and therefore where the travel advice is in the future," Shapps told BBC TV when asked if people should book summer holidays.

Britain's economy shrank by a record 5.8 percent in March from February, official data showed on Wednesday.

Workers in the United Kingdom who have been unable to earn a living because of the coronavirus lockdown got some welcome news on Tuesday when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced an extension of the nation's furlough program.

Sunak, who oversees the country's finances, won widespread praise when he introduced the program soon after the government ordered the lockdown at the end of March. The initiative ensures employees who cannot work from home get 80 percent of their wages from the government, up to a pre-tax maximum of 2,500 pounds ($3,087) a month.

But Sunak recently warned the 7.5 million people receiving payments that the money could dry up in June because of the expense.

On Tuesday, he said the initiative will, in fact, continue until October－although he said, starting in August, employers will be asked to contribute toward the cost.

A further 627 COVID-19 patients died in Britain from the previous day, taking the country's death toll from the virus to 32,692, the Department of Health and Social Care said Tuesday.

Across Europe, the novel coronavirus had infected 1,602,977 people and claimed 155,496 lives as of Wednesday, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Austria said on Wednesday that its border with Germany will fully reopen in a month, one of the first big steps to reopen land borders across the EU that have been shut to fight the coronavirus.

Germany will start to relax from Saturday some border controls introduced in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus with the aim of having free travel in Europe from mid-June, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Wednesday.

Controls at the EU's external borders will remain until June 15, said Seehofer, adding it was too early to ease controls with Italy and that he would have big problems allowing travel to the United States. Both have been harder hit by the crisis.

Earle Gale in London, Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.