Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
U.K., Sweden scaling back on virus rules, testing
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that rules requiring people in England with covid-19 to self-isolate could be lifted by the end of the month, bringing an end to all domestic coronavirus restrictions.
“Provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions — including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive — a full month early,” Johnson told Parliament.
People who test positive now have to isolate for five full days. That rule is to expire March 24.
Johnson added that he plans to present his plan for living with the virus when Parliament returns from a break on Feb. 21.
Johnson’s Conservative government dropped most remaining covid-19 restrictions last month. Masks are no longer mandatory anywhere in England, except on London’s public transport network. Virus passports for gaining entry to 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 as it becomes endemic in the country.
The U.K. has seen a drop in new infections and covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals since early January, when the highly transmissible omicron variant drove daily caseloads to more than 200,000 a day.
Current infections average around 64,000 daily — the lowest recorded since mid-December — with 314 deaths reported Tuesday.
Officials have credited the government’s booster shots program with preventing the surge of omicron cases from causing serious stress on U.K. hospitals. In Britain, 65.4% of people 12 and over have had booster shots, and 84.5% have been fully vaccinated.
Beginning Friday, the rules for people traveling to the U.K. 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 won’t have to isolate, although they need to take tests.
Some scientists greeted Wednesday’s news with caution. Simon Clarke, a professor in microbiology at the University of Reading, said ending the self-isolation rule will be “an experiment which will either be shown to be very brave or very stupid.”
“Omicron may be on the wane in Europe but other parts of the world are still in the full flush of a surge 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 said.
SWEDEN TESTING
Sweden has halted widescale testing for covid-19 even among people showing symptoms of an infection, putting an end to the mobile citysquare tent sites, drive-in swab centers and home-delivered tests that became ubiquitous during the pandemic and provided essential data for tracking its spread.
The move puts the Scandinavian nation at odds with most of Europe, but some experts say it could become the norm as costly testing yields fewer benefits with the omicron variant and as governments begin to consider treating covid-19 like they do other endemic illnesses.
“We have reached a point where the cost and relevance of the testing is no longer justifiable.” Swedish Public Health Agency chief Karin Tegmark Wisell told the national broadcast SVT this week.
“If we were to have extensive testing adapted to everyone who has covid-19, that would mean half a billion kronor a week [about $55 million] and 2 billion a month [$220 million]” Tegmark Wisell added.
Starting Wednesday, only health care and elderly care workers and the most vulnerable will be entitled to free PCR testing if they are symptomatic, while the rest of the population will simply be asked to stay home if they show symptoms that could be covid-19.
Antigen tests are readily available for purchase in supermarkets and pharmacies, but those results aren’t reported to health authorities. Private health care providers can also perform tests and offer certificates for international travel, but the cost won’t be reimbursed by the state or health insurance.
High vaccination rates in Sweden are creating optimism among health officials, and a late 2020 study released Tuesday shows antibodies present in 85% of samples.
For most of the pandemic, Sweden stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response. It never went into lockdown or closed businesses, largely relying instead on individual responsibility to control infections. While coronavirus deaths were high compared with other Nordic countries, they were lower than many other places in Europe that did implement lockdowns.
Also Wednesday, the country scrapped as of midnight its limits on how many people may gather at events or in restaurants, vaccination certificates can no longer be required, and reduced operating hours have been canceled for bars and eateries.
HONG KONG SURGE
Hong Kong urged residents who suspect they might be infected with coronavirus to avoid emergency rooms after cases topped four figures for the first time, with the worsening outbreak crippling its health-care resources.
The city announced a record 1,161 cases Wednesday, up from 625 just a day earlier, along with about 800 preliminary infections. Officials asked anyone with mild covid-like symptoms to go to private doctors to get tested, rather than go to emergency departments in public hospitals, which are being overwhelmed.
The new instructions overturn 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 capabilities.
It’s the latest in a series of U- turns as the ballooning outbreak strained covid Zero strategies. All infected patients, even those without symptoms, were kept in hospital isolation wards for weeks until recently, when a lack of beds forced the city to move them to a quarantine camp.
Now mild cases are being moved out to the Penny’s Bay complex while close contacts can isolate at home, despite the higher risk of spread that these laxer measures pose.
The toughest restrictions since the pandemic began are to go into effect today, including an unprecedented move to limit multi-household gatherings on private premises to two families. Hong Kong is cracking down on its residents socializing after blaming last week’s Lunar New Year holiday — which typically sees relatives and friends gather indoors — as the source of the explosive increase in infections.
Health officials announced that two men with preexisting illnesses had died this week shortly after being diagnosed with covid-19. Officials didn’t give details on which variant they were infected with or the exact causes of their deaths.
Hong Kong officials have so far steered clear of implementing a lockdown, but it’s unclear how the city can contain the current outbreak without such a stringent measure. Authorities have also said they won’t actively track private gatherings, potentially rendering that new measure largely ineffective.
Top government adviser Bernard Chan said Wednesday that he was “very optimistic” Hong Kong could reopen to the world within the next year once the city had a fully vaccinated community and better knowledge of omicron.
Hong Kong and mainland China, are the last holdouts globally in pursuing covid Zero, even as the easily transmissible omicron variant makes that strategy increasingly difficult and costly for their economies. While the city’s surge in cases remains low by global standards, it comes after months of no community transmission.