Virgin Group boss, Richard Branson, has written an open letter to the company's employees warning that Virgin Atlantic will collapse unless it receives government financial support. In his letter, Sir Branson says the company is facing its "most challenging time" in five decades of business.

It has been reported that the airline is asking for up to 500 million pounds of public money. Branson says this would be in the form of a commercial loan that the airline would pay back.

He also defends himself from criticism of his request for help from taxpayers.

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The Spanish government plans to propose to its EU partners that the bloc create a 1.5 trillion euro fund to aid recovery in countries worst-hit by the coronavirus crisis. This is according to an internal document cited by El Pais newspaper. According to the report, Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, plans to make a formal proposal to his EU colleagues during a summit on Thursday. The newspaper said the fund proposed by the Spanish government would be financed by perpetual debt raised by the 27-country European Union and the cash sent to the different countries would count as transfers and not debt.

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South Africa’s Harmony Gold, on Monday, says it will resume operations by up to 50 percent capacity after the government relaxed regulations on miners during the coronavirus lockdown.

The bullion miner said it expects it to take up to five working days to restart its underground operations. South Africa said on Thursday that it would allow mines to operate at up to half capacity after it had previously ordered most underground mines and furnaces to be put on care and maintenance. This is apart from coal mines supplying state power utility Eskom.

The lockdown, which started on March 27 and has been extended until the end of April, has hit global commodities markets since several local miners have cut their production plans.

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Zambia will hold talks with the International Monetary Fund on the southern Africa’s country request for an economic programme. The country's finance minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, disclosed this on Monday. Ng'andu told reporters that the country will discuss with IMF on an appropriate macro-economic framework that will lead to a programme eventually. According to the minister, talks with the IMF hinged mainly on debt sustainability. He added that Zambia had already embarked on measures including reduced borrowing and the suspension of some project.

African nations including Zambia have become heavily indebted in the past decade and are seeking support from the IMF, World Bank and European Union for wide-ranging debt relief.

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Rivers State chapter of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria has mandated hotel guests in the state to wear facemasks before they can be attended to by workers in such facilities. State Coordinator of FTAN, Eugene Nwauzi, stated this saying the decision is part of measures being taken by hotels in the state to check the spread of COVID-19.

Nwauzi added that any guest who flouts the guidelines would not receive the attention of hotel attendants. He, however, lamented that the tourism industry in the state had lost over 15 billion naira as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that aviation and hotels were worse hit.

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Kenya’s Safaricom expects a 5.5 billion shilling hit to its revenue from M-Pesa in the three months from mid-march. This is after it adjusted prices because of the coronavirus crisis. The foregone revenue, equating about 7.3 percent of the mobile money platform’s annual earnings, will be caused by the removal of all charges on small peer-to-peer transfers to facilitate cashless payments to help to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Safaricom's CEO, Peter Ndegwa, told Reuters that the company is not worried by the projections.

According to him, the company is in a good place to weather the storm. He however adds that Safaricom's business is linked to how the country comes out on the other side.

Safaricom has experienced a surge in data traffic as people work from home and students turn to e-learning services.

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Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, on Friday, had said the Exxon Mobil workers were arrested after entering the state from neighboring Akwa Ibom State in violation of an executive order restricting movement into the state as part of measures imposed last month. However, Governor Wike’s spokesman, Simeon Nwakaudu, issued a statement on Sunday, saying the workers were all released without charge “following interventions by well-meaning Nigerians”.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, said it decided to suspend its planned industrial action after achieving the primary demand in its ultimatum. The oil workers' union had instructed its members to withdraw all forms of services relating to crude oil production, refining, distribution and supplies from Monday unless the Exxon Mobil workers were freed.

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Humanitarian agency, Medicins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors without Borders, says one of its workers in Borno State has died after contracting COVID-19. A spokesperson for the agency, who confirmed the death, did not provide further details. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said on Sunday that it had recorded a cumulative total of 627 confirmed cases and 21 deaths, including one in Borno state. But no further details were also given to confirm if the only case in the state was the MSF worker.

Borno is at the epicenter of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, spawned by a decade-long Islamist militant insurgency that has left 7 million people in need of aid.

The UN has expressed concern about the 1.8 million internally displaced people at camps across the state.

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Eighty-six new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, taking the country’s total infections to 627. The NCDC confirmed this late on Sunday in a tweet. According to the agency, seventy of the 86 new cases were recorded in Lagos, seven in FCT, and three in Katsina. The data also showed three cases were confirmed in Akwa Ibom, one in Jigawa, one in Bauchi and one in Borno.

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Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook led a companywide virtual meeting on Thursday to address concerns about the impact of Covid-19 and discuss the iPhone maker’s plan to return to work.

During the meeting, Cook called the pandemic an “uncertain and stressful moment,” but expressed confidence that the company will emerge strongly from the crisis, as it did after the 2008 recession and following a near-bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

Apple retail employees are starting online training and ramping up virtual meetings in anticipation of store re-openings, according to people familiar with the matter. That will require employees to clock in and out online. Apple anticipates beginning to re-open its U.S. stores in early May.

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