Coronavirus: UK PM to lift all Covid curbs; Prince Charles tests positive; Sweden declares pandemic over
- England’s dramatic step will take effect later this month as Boris Johnson plans to scrap self-isolation rules for those who test positive: the last restriction
- The heir to the British throne, 73, previously tested positive for Covid-19 in March 2020 after he and his wife Camilla had received the vaccine
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to scrap self-isolation rules for people in England who test positive for Covid-19, ending the last of the pandemic restrictions that have dominated daily life for the past two years.
The dramatic step is due to take effect later this month and would move England beyond other major Western countries in relaxing virus curbs. While regulations forcing people to self-isolate at home for five days are only set to expire on March 24, Johnson said Wednesday he expects to lift them “a full month early.”
With more people vaccinated and the highly-transmissible Omicron variant proving almost unstoppable, a number of countries have been easing rules and trying to return life to normal as quickly as possible. However, not everybody is in favour of the move.
“The prime minister’s announcement is very puzzling, and we must hope that he will publish the relevant scientific evidence soon,” Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Otherwise, there is a danger that it will be seen as a diversion from his current problems and undermine public trust.”
The change in rules will be part of the government’s “Living with Covid” strategy to be announced February 21. Johnson said the final restrictions will be lifted early “provided that the current encouraging trends in the data continue.” Official guidance will remain that people with infectious diseases shouldn’t go to workplaces.
The UK recorded 66,183 confirmed virus infections and 314 deaths on Tuesday, while the seven-day average of cases has fallen by 20 per cent in the last week. Hospital admissions for Covid-19 have declined since the start of the year, while numbers in intensive care are far below the peak seen last winter.
UK’s Prince Charles test positive for second time
Britain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for Covid-19, his office said on Thursday, the second time that the heir-to-the-throne has contracted the disease.
“This morning The Prince of Wales has tested positive for Covid-19 and is now self-isolating,” Clarence House said, adding he had cancelled his planned engagements for later in the day. There was no immediate comment on his condition.
Charles, 73, who said in December both he and his wife Camilla had received their Covid vaccine booster shots, previously tested positive in March 2020 when he said he had been “lucky” to have suffered only mild symptoms.
He spent seven days in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland before resuming his duties.
On Wednesday, he attended a reception for the British Asian Trust where pictures showed him chatting to other guests including British finance minister Rishi Sunak. Health minister Sajid Javid and interior minister Priti Patel were also among those who were due to attend.
Charles’s son Prince William also contracted Covid soon after his father in 2020, with media reports saying he had been hit pretty badly by the virus.
Sweden declares pandemic over, despite scientist warnings
Sweden scrapped almost all of its few pandemic restrictions on Wednesday and stopped most testing for Covid-19, even as the pressure on the health care systems remained high and some scientists begged for more patience in fighting the disease.
Swedish hospitals were still feeling the strain, however, with about 2,200 people with Covid requiring hospital care, about the same as during a third wave in the spring of 2021. As free testing was reduced this month and effectively stopped from Wednesday, no one knows the exact number of cases.
Paris bans Canada-style ‘freedom convoy’ protests
French “freedom convoy” motorists protesting against Covid-19 restrictions will be blocked from entering Paris, the French capital’s police authority said on Thursday.
Protesters set out from southern France on Wednesday in what they call a “freedom convoy” that will converge on Paris and Brussels to demand an end to Covid-19 restrictions, inspired by demonstrators who have gridlocked the Canadian capital Ottawa. Departures are expected from more cities across France on Thursday.
The Paris prefecture said the protesters would be prohibited from entering the capital from February 11-14, citing the risk of public disorder.
Copycat protests have also sprang up in Australia and New Zealand. Protesters waved the Canadian flag as France’s “freedom convoy” got under way.
Motorists who violated the order not to protest within Paris risked two years in prison, a 4,500 euro fine and suspended driving licence, the prefecture cautioned.
‘Milder’ Omicron sub-variant dominant in South Africa
The Omicron BA. 2 sub-variant makes up almost 100 per cent of new coronavirus infections in South Africa, Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatics professor who runs gene-sequencing institutions and advises the government on the pandemic, said.
“As expected, Omicron BA. 2 takes over in South Africa, close to 100 per cent of the new genomes,” de Oliveira, who announced the discovery of the original Omicron variant on November 25, said on Twitter. “What does it mean?”
While BA. 2 appears to be more transmissible than the original Omicron variant there is no indication that it causes more severe disease. De Oliveira has previously said that it could cause a second surge of infections within the Omicron-driven wave.
Still, while South Africa was the first country to experience a major Omicron wave the number of infections has tapered off. On Wednesday the country reported 3,628 new cases, down from a record of almost 27,000 on December 15. The original Omicron strain is itself significantly more transmissible than earlier variants such as delta, but appears to cause milder disease.
Antibody therapy retains neutralising activity against Omicron sub-variant
An antibody-based Covid-19 therapy developed by GSK and Vir Biotechnology retains neutralising activity against the emerging BA. 2 form of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Vir said on Thursday, citing preclinical data.
The monoclonal antibody therapy, sotrovimab, is currently authorised for emergency use in the United States. The companies are sharing the latest data with global regulatory authorities, Vir said.
AstraZeneca sees higher 2022 sales, but Covid boost waning
AstraZeneca forecast higher 2022 sales and raised its annual dividend for the first time in a decade on Thursday, but warned the boost from its Covid-19 products would fall.
An expected decline in sales of the vaccine is likely to be only partially offset by growth in sales of the antibody drug, Evusheld, it said. AstraZeneca expects overall 2022 revenue to increase as sales last year jumped 38 per cent to US$37.42 billion.
AstraZeneca, which has said low-income nations would continue to receive its vaccine on a no-profit basis, set up a separate unit to focus on its coronavirus efforts and other respiratory infections.
AstraZeneca’s ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 shot, sold under the brands Vaxzevria and Covishield with more than 2.6 billion doses supplied as of February, is a major weapon against the pandemic but is yet to get US approval.
Reporting by Bloomberg, Reuters
