People wear face masks to curb the spread of coronavirus as they disembark from a train during the morning rush hour at Waterloo train station in London.
Highlights
- UK crossed a huge number of 150,000 deaths due to Covid since the pandemic began.
- British PM Boris Johnson has raised concern over the new record calling it a ‘terrible toll’.
- In the UK, home isolation has been mandated since the start of symptoms showing.
Amid rising Covid cases in the UK raising an alarm, the country crossed a huge number of 150,000 deaths due to the infection since the start of the pandemic. PM Boris Johnson has raised concern over the new record calling it a ‘terrible toll’.
The Omicron variant surge continues with a further 146,390 daily infections and 313 deaths on Saturday. Johnson said the coronavirus pandemic has “taken a terrible toll on our country” as he renewed his appeal for people to get vaccinated and thanked the National Health Service (NHS) for its life-saving efforts. “Each and every one of those is a profound loss to the families, friends, and communities and my thoughts and condolences are with them,” said Johnson.
“Our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven’t yet. I want to thank everyone in the NHS and all the volunteers who have come forward to help with our country’s vaccine program,” he said.
Home isolation on a rise
In the UK, home isolation has been mandated since the start of symptoms showing, as opposed to the US where the home isolation has been shortened to 5 days and only begins when a person tests positive.
According to BBC, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) had said that there might be a higher spike if the period was cut from seven to five days but the government would keep the “measure under review” as staff absences due to self-isolation continue to pile significant pressure on frontline services.
However, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said such a move would be an “utterly wrongheaded” approach to dealing with coronavirus. “Hard to imagine much that would be less helpful to trying to ‘live with’ COVID,” she tweeted.
People advised getting tested twice
Covid tests are currently available through the NHS as people are advised to test at least twice a week and before attending large gatherings, to try and prevent asymptomatic transmission. It is also used by workers to be able to return to work after testing negative on day 6 and day 7 of their self-isolation period.
(With PTI Inputs)
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