Great Britain, Sweden reduces virus rules, tests
LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that rules requiring people in England with covid-19 to isolate themselves could be lifted by the end of the month, which will put an end to all domestic coronavirus restrictions.
“Assuming the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the latest domestic restrictions – including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive – a full month in advance,” Johnson told Parliament.
People who test positive must now isolate themselves for five full days. That rule expires on March 24.
Johnson added that he plans to present his plan to live with the virus when Parliament returns from a break on February 21.
Johnson’s Conservative government released most of the remaining covid-19 restrictions last month. Masks are no longer mandatory anywhere in England, except on London’s public transport network. Virus passes to enter nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home.
Officials have said the government plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus more like the flu when it becomes endemic in the country.
The UK has seen a reduction in new infections and covid-19 patients hospitalized since early January, when the highly transmissible omicron variant increased the daily number of cases to more than 200,000 per day.
Current infections average about 64,000 daily – the lowest recorded since mid-December – with 314 deaths reported on Tuesday.
Officials have credited the government’s booster shots program to prevent the rise of omicron cases from causing serious stress in British hospitals. In the UK, 65.4% of people 12 years and older have received booster shots and 84.5% have been fully vaccinated.
From Friday, the rules for people traveling to the UK will also be relaxed. Fully vaccinated travelers will no longer need to take any coronavirus tests before or after arrival, and those who are not fully vaccinated will not need to isolate themselves, even if they have to take tests.
Some researchers greeted Wednesday’s news with caution. Simon Clarke, professor of microbiology at the University of Reading, said an end to the rule of self-isolation would be “an experiment that will either prove very brave or very stupid.”
“Omicron may be on the decline in Europe, but other parts of the world are still in full swing of an increase in infections. In such circumstances, as we have seen before, the virus is in the best possible position to mutate again, and there is absolutely no certainty that any new variant would be less dangerous, he says.
SWEDEN TESTS
Sweden has stopped large-scale tests for covid-19 even among people who show symptoms of an infection, put a stop to the mobile tent sites in squares, drive-in swab centers and home-delivered tests that became ubiquitous during the pandemic and provided important data to track the spread.
The move puts the Scandinavian nation at odds with most of Europe, but some experts say it may become the norm because costly tests provide fewer benefits with the omicron variant and when governments begin to consider treating covid-19 as they do other endemic diseases.
“We have reached a point where the cost and relevance of testing is no longer justifiable.” This is what the head of the Public Health Agency, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told the national broadcast SVT this week.
“If we had extensive tests adapted to everyone who has covid-19, it would mean half a billion kronor a week [about $55 million] and 2 billion a month [$220 million]added Tegmark Wisell.
From Wednesday, only care and elderly care workers and the most vulnerable will be entitled to free PCR tests if they are symptomatic, while the rest of the population will simply be asked to stay at home if they show symptoms that may be covid-19 .
Antigen tests are readily available for purchase in supermarkets and pharmacies, but these results are not reported to health authorities.
High vaccination rates in Sweden create optimism among health care officials, and a study at the end of 2020, which was released on Tuesday, shows that antibodies are present in 85% of the samples.
During most of the pandemic, Sweden stood out among European nations for its comparatively practical response. It never went into lockdown or closed companies, and instead relied on individual responsibility for controlling infections. While coronavirus deaths were high compared to other Nordic countries, they were lower than many other places in Europe that carried out shutdowns.
Also on Wednesday, the country scrapped its limits from midnight on how many people can gather at events or restaurants, vaccination certificates can no longer be required, and reduced opening hours have been set for bars and restaurants.
HONG KONG SEARCH
Hong Kong urged residents who suspect they may be infected with coronavirus to avoid emergency rooms after the cases peaked at four figures for the first time, with the worsening outbreak paralyzing its healthcare resources.
The city announced a record 1,161 cases on Wednesday, up from 625 just one day earlier, along with about 800 preliminary infections. Officials asked anyone with mild covid-like symptoms to go to private doctors for testing, rather than go to emergency rooms at public hospitals, which are overwhelmed.
The new instructions overturn the advice given less than a week ago – when the government said residents who tested positive with home kits should go to accident and emergency units to get official diagnoses – reflecting the rapid deterioration of the city’s virus-fighting ability.
It is the latest in a series of U-turns as the balloon eruption strained covid Zero strategies. All infected patients, even those without symptoms, were kept in hospital isolation wards for weeks until recently, when the lack of beds forced the city to move them to a quarantine camp.
Mild cases are now being moved to the Penny’s Bay complex, while close contacts can be isolated at home, despite the higher risk of spread that these looser measures entail.
The toughest restrictions since the pandemic began will come into force today, including a never-before-seen move to limit gatherings with several households in private premises to two families. Hong Kong is cracking down on its residents’ association after blaming last week’s New Year’s weekend as the source of the explosive rise in infections.
Health authorities announced that two men with pre-existing diseases had died this week shortly after being diagnosed with covid-19. Officials did not provide details on what variant they were infected with or the exact causes of their deaths.
Officials in Hong Kong have so far avoided carrying out a shutdown, but it is unclear how the city can limit the current outbreak without such strict action. Authorities have also said they will not actively track down private gatherings, which could potentially make the new measure largely ineffective.
Leading government adviser Bernard Chan said on Wednesday that he was “very optimistic” that Hong Kong could reopen to the world within the next year when the city had a fully vaccinated community and better knowledge of omicron.
Hong Kong and China are the last stops globally as they strive for covid Zero, although the easily transferable omicron variant makes that strategy increasingly difficult and expensive for their economies. While the city’s increase in cases is still low by global standards, it comes after months without transfer from the community.
Information for this article has been contributed by Sylvia Hui, David Keyton, Maria Cheng, and Derek Gatopoulos of the Associated Press; and by Jinshan Hong and Shirley Zhao from Bloomberg News.