Coronavirus

Covid: Iceland to lift all remaining curbs; coronavirus isolation rules end in England – as it happened

covid:-iceland-to-lift-all-remaining-curbs;-coronavirus-isolation-rules-end-in-england-–-as-it-happened

Iceland to lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday

Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.

Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.

Speaking at a government meeting today, Thórsson said:

We can truly rejoice at this turning-point, but nonetheless I encourage people to be careful, practice personal infection prevention measures and not to interact with others if they notice symptoms

Iceland, with a population of 368,000 people, has reported between 2,100 and 2,800 daily infections recently. More than 115,000 infections have been recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic and 60 have died due to the virus.

A further 125 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 161,104, the government said.

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Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 184,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

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Here is a round-up of today’s main Covid news stories:

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  • The legal requirement to self-isolate with Covid ends today in England. Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
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  • Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.
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  • Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals. From early March, foreigners will be allowed to enter for business purposes, including inspection, investment, employment or fulfilling contractual obligations.
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  • A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests.
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  • Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
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That’s all from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, on the global coronavirus blog as I head over to our Ukraine coverage. Do join me there if you’d like. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of everything you might have missed:

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  • Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus. Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.
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  • From today, people in England who test positive for the coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate themselves. Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
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  • Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals, in a move to slightly ease restrictions in one of the few places still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy. Authorities announced restrictions would ease from early March for foreigners coming in for business purposes.
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  • The UK government health secretary, Sajid Javid, has defended the Covid response against accusations that MPs were unable to scrutinise controversial provisions in emergency legislation during the early stages of the pandemic. Ministers had to “act quickly”, Javid said, as he addressed the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on the Coronavirus Act ahead of its two-year anniversary.
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  • Several high-end countries have vaccinated 90% of their populations while some African nations have completed only 10% of inoculation, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said. Speaking in a panel discussion as part of BioAsia 2022, she suggested that there was a need for a distributed manufacturing network across the globe.
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  • The Queen has postponed two scheduled virtual audiences on Thursday after her Covid-19 diagnosis, Buckingham Palace said. The 95-year-old monarch tested positive for the virus on Sunday when she was said to be suffering from mild cold-like symptoms.
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  • A group of shouting protesters chased the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests. Anti-vaccine and anti-vaccine mandate protesters have been occupying New Zealand’s parliament grounds for more than two weeks and blocking a number of streets in Wellington’s central business district with their cars.
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  • Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak. The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever Covid wave, registering thousands of cases every day and overwhelming hospitals.
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  • The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to Covid restrictions.
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  • Most pregnant women in the UK are still shunning Covid vaccines despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows. Data reveals 73% of Asian women, 86% of black women and 65% of white women were unvaccinated at the time of giving birth in October 2021.
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From today, people in England who test positive for the coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate themselves.

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Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.

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Unveiling his government’s strategy for “living with Covid” on Monday, Boris Johnson told the public:

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Until April 1 we will still advise people who test positive to stay at home but after that we will encourage people with Covid-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others

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England’s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, said people should still isolate if they had the virus, despite the legal requirement ending on Thursday.

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He said it was “standard public health advice” and warned that while rates were coming down it was “still a very common infection”.

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Self-isolation support payments of £500 for people on low incomes have also ended today, as has the legal obligation for workers to tell their employer that they need to isolate.

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Routine contact tracing has also ended, meaning people will no longer be advised to test or isolate after coming into contact with someone who has the virus.

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Isolation rules are not changing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, meaning people will still be required to isolate for at least five full days after testing positive.

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isolation rules end in England”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 24 Feb 2022 19.29 GMT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 24 Feb 2022 07.23 GMT”},{“id”:”621775ed8f08c3a5e4daab26″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.

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Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.

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Speaking at a government meeting today, Thórsson said:

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n

We can truly rejoice at this turning-point, but nonetheless I encourage people to be careful, practice personal infection prevention measures and not to interact with others if they notice symptoms

n

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Iceland, with a population of 368,000 people, has reported between 2,100 and 2,800 daily infections recently. More than 115,000 infections have been recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic and 60 have died due to the virus.

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Here is a round-up of today’s main Covid news stories:

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    n

  • A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests.
  • n

  • Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.
  • n

  • The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to Covid restrictions.
  • n

  • Japan has said international travellers showing proof of a Covid vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot would be allowed in and be eligible for a shorter time in quarantine when border controls are eased next month.
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  • The Omicron BA.2 sub-variant of Covid appears to be more infectious than the original BA.1 sub-variant, according to data from South Africa.
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  • The rollout of the coronavirus vaccination programme has been praised by the UK’s public spending watchdog for meeting “stretching and unprecedented targets” and saving lives.
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  • Most pregnant women in the UK are still shunning Covid vaccines despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows.
  • n

  • Hong Kong reported a new record of 8,798 Covid infections on Thursday, health authorities said.
  • n

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That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, until tomorrow. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to take over the global Covid live blog. Bye for now.

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Japan has said international travellers showing proof of a Covid vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot would be allowed in and be eligible for a shorter time in quarantine when border controls are eased next month.

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The J&J shot, which has not been approved in Japan, will join a list of three other shots that have been approved by regulators as sufficient for non-residents to enter, after a nearly two-year ban on such travellers.

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The other approved vaccines on a list that the foreign ministry released on Thursday are the ones developed by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, Reuters reported.

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Vaccines developed by Chinese and Russian makers are not included.

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From 1 March, authorities will raise the number of people allowed in to Japan to 5,000 a day, from 3,500, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters last week. The easing applies to students, workers, and other visa holders, but not to tourists for the time being.

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The quarantine period will be reduced to three days in some conditions, from seven, and it will be waived entirely depending on the traveller’s point of origin, and if they have had a booster shot.

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Hello. Tom Ambrose here and I’ll be bringing you all the latest Covid news from around the world over the next few hours.

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We start with the news that Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.

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“The regulation will provide a legal framework for the CPG (central people’s government) to render the necessary emergent support to Hong Kong in a more effective and expeditious manner,” the government said in a statement.

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The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever Covid wave, registering thousands of cases every day, overwhelming hospitals and the city’s requirement that all patients are isolated in dedicated units.

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Local authorities adopted a zero-Covid strategy similar to China to keep infections mostly at bay for two years. But they were caught flat-footed when the highly infectious Omicron variant broke through those defences and have increasingly called on the Chinese mainland for help.

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“Hong Kong is now facing a very dire epidemic situation which continues to deteriorate rapidly,” the government said in its statement announcing the use of emergency powers.

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Chinese mainland medics are not currently allowed to operate in Hong Kong without passing local exams and licensing regulations.

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Key events

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A man pulls a pallet with the “Nuvaxovid” Covid vaccine by US company Novavax after a shipment of the vaccine arrived at a warehouse in Hagenbrunn, Lower Austria. The two-dose vaccine is based on synthetic proteins that mimic the spikes that dot the surface of the virus.
A man pulls a pallet with the “Nuvaxovid” Covid vaccine by US company Novavax after a shipment of the vaccine arrived at a warehouse in Hagenbrunn, Lower Austria. The two-dose vaccine is based on synthetic proteins that mimic the spikes that dot the surface of the virus. Photograph: Florian Weiser/APA/AFP/Getty Images

France has reported 66,732 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.

The European Union’s drug watchdog has approved Moderna’s Covid jab for children aged six to 11, the second vaccine to be approved for younger children in the 27-member bloc, AFP reports.

“The EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has recommended granting an extension of indication for the Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax to include use in children aged 6 to 11,” the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

The jab, developed by US-based pharmaceutical company Moderna, has already been approved for adults and children aged 12 and above

“As in the older age group, the vaccine is given as two injections in the muscles of the upper arm, four weeks apart,” the EMA said.

France reported 109,649 coronavirus deaths in hospital, up by 197.
France also reported that 2,656 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, down by 97, Reuters reports.

UK death toll increases by 125

A further 125 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 161,104, the government said.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 184,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Summary

Here is a round-up of today’s main Covid news stories:

  • The legal requirement to self-isolate with Covid ends today in England. Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
  • Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.
  • Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals. From early March, foreigners will be allowed to enter for business purposes, including inspection, investment, employment or fulfilling contractual obligations.
  • A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests.
  • Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.

The most disadvantaged areas of Melbourne in Australia have been hit hardest by Covid-19 deaths during Victoria’s Omicron wave, further underscoring the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on communities with lower employment and income levels, and poorer access to services.

Data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia shows that in Melbourne’s most disadvantaged local government areas (LGAs), Covid deaths occurred at a rate of 26 deaths per 100,000 residents. This substantially outweighs deaths in areas of greater socioeconomic advantage.

Summary

That’s all from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, on the global coronavirus blog as I head over to our Ukraine coverage. Do join me there if you’d like. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of everything you might have missed:

  • Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus. Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.
  • From today, people in England who test positive for the coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate themselves. Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.
  • Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals, in a move to slightly ease restrictions in one of the few places still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy. Authorities announced restrictions would ease from early March for foreigners coming in for business purposes.
  • The UK government health secretary, Sajid Javid, has defended the Covid response against accusations that MPs were unable to scrutinise controversial provisions in emergency legislation during the early stages of the pandemic. Ministers had to “act quickly”, Javid said, as he addressed the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on the Coronavirus Act ahead of its two-year anniversary.
  • Several high-end countries have vaccinated 90% of their populations while some African nations have completed only 10% of inoculation, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said. Speaking in a panel discussion as part of BioAsia 2022, she suggested that there was a need for a distributed manufacturing network across the globe.
  • The Queen has postponed two scheduled virtual audiences on Thursday after her Covid-19 diagnosis, Buckingham Palace said. The 95-year-old monarch tested positive for the virus on Sunday when she was said to be suffering from mild cold-like symptoms.
  • A group of shouting protesters chased the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests. Anti-vaccine and anti-vaccine mandate protesters have been occupying New Zealand’s parliament grounds for more than two weeks and blocking a number of streets in Wellington’s central business district with their cars.
  • Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak. The densely populated metropolis is in the throes of its worst-ever Covid wave, registering thousands of cases every day and overwhelming hospitals.
  • The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has announced he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to Covid restrictions.
  • Most pregnant women in the UK are still shunning Covid vaccines despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows. Data reveals 73% of Asian women, 86% of black women and 65% of white women were unvaccinated at the time of giving birth in October 2021.

Several high-end countries have vaccinated 90% of their populations while some African nations have completed only 10% of inoculation, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist said.

Although the scientific achievement with regards to tackling the pandemic has been commendable, there was no global coordination and several countries did not abide by the framework put out by the WHO, Soumya Swaminathan said.

Speaking in a panel discussion as part of BioAsia 2022, she said:

I think that while the scientific achievements have been absolutely outstanding, the fact that we have a vaccine in less than a year … Where we fell short was on really global coordination and harmonised ways of approaching pandemic.

Though the world no longer faced an acute vaccine supply shortage that was seen throughout 2021, the challenge remains that many countries are not able to carry out massive vaccination programmes.

Swaminathan said the WHO was working on scenarios where variant-proof vaccines were developed and suggested that there was a need for a distributed manufacturing network across the globe.

The UK government health secretary, Sajid Javid, has defended the Covid response against accusations that MPs were unable to scrutinise controversial provisions in emergency legislation during the early stages of the pandemic.

Ministers had to “act quickly”, Javid said, as he addressed the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on the Coronavirus Act ahead of its two-year anniversary.

The health secretary accepted that ensuring parliament could properly debate emergency legislation may be one of the “lessons learned” from the crisis, adding that he did not “envisage” ever having to bring back provisions in the act which are set to expire at midnight on 24 March.

The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said there was a view among some MPs that decisions which had a “major impact” on the public had at times seemed like a “fait accompli”.

At times, when it’s come to announcements in parliament, there is a view among some parliamentarians that actually it’s almost been like peeping through the keyhole or shouting through the letterbox of Number 10 rather than participating in the decision-making process of such fundamental issues.

Scottish National party MP for Inverclyde, Ronnie Cowan, asked Javid:

You don’t think it would have been preferable at some point to have had a wider debate in parliament on some of those provisions?

Javid replied:

I see what you’re getting at and I think that should be part of the lessons learned.

I guess your point is that whilst the overall act is needed, could individual provisions, could parliament have more say on them… even if it’s not all the provisions, some of the more, let’s say, controversial ones, and I think it’s a very fair point to think about that now.

The government had to “act quickly” and strike a balance between enabling parliamentary debate on the laws and rolling out measures to protect the British public at pace, he said.

Hong Kong’s Covid-19 vaccine pass came into effect today, requiring people entering restaurants, shopping centres and supermarkets to have received at least one Covid-19 jab.

Masks are also required for all outdoor exercise and people are not permitted to remove face coverings to eat or drink on public transport.

From Thursday, people must also use their phone’s LeaveHomeSafe contact tracing app to scan a QR code to enter specified premises.

Restaurants will proactively scan people’s vaccination records, while higher traffic venues such as malls and supermarkets will only see spot checks.

To qualify for a vaccine pass, the person must have received at least one Covid-19 jab, or have a doctor’s certificate certifying they are medically unfit to be inoculated. Anyone caught using somebody else’s vaccination records as their own could face legal consequences, authorities said.

Covid isolation rules end in England

From today, people in England who test positive for the coronavirus will no longer be legally required to isolate themselves.

Guidance will remain in place until April for those who test positive to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, but there will be no penalty for not doing so.

Unveiling his government’s strategy for “living with Covid” on Monday, Boris Johnson told the public:

Until April 1 we will still advise people who test positive to stay at home but after that we will encourage people with Covid-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others

England’s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, said people should still isolate if they had the virus, despite the legal requirement ending on Thursday.

He said it was “standard public health advice” and warned that while rates were coming down it was “still a very common infection”.

Self-isolation support payments of £500 for people on low incomes have also ended today, as has the legal obligation for workers to tell their employer that they need to isolate.

Routine contact tracing has also ended, meaning people will no longer be advised to test or isolate after coming into contact with someone who has the virus.

Isolation rules are not changing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, meaning people will still be required to isolate for at least five full days after testing positive.

People arrive at King’s Cross station in London as all remaining legal Covid restrictions are removed in England, with people no longer legally required to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid.
People arrive at King’s Cross station in London as all remaining legal Covid restrictions are removed in England, with people no longer legally required to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Iceland to lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday

Iceland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Friday, including a 200-person indoor gathering limit, restricted opening hours for bars and quarantine requirements for those infected with the virus.

Iceland’s minister of health, Willum Thór Thórsson, confirmed the country would remove all restrictions from 25 February, including lifting all border measures, with no additional restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.

Speaking at a government meeting today, Thórsson said:

We can truly rejoice at this turning-point, but nonetheless I encourage people to be careful, practice personal infection prevention measures and not to interact with others if they notice symptoms

Iceland, with a population of 368,000 people, has reported between 2,100 and 2,800 daily infections recently. More than 115,000 infections have been recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic and 60 have died due to the virus.

Taiwan is reopening to business travellers and shortening quarantine for all arrivals, in a move to slightly ease restrictions in one of the few places still pursuing a zero-Covid strategy.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) announced restrictions would ease from early March for foreigners coming in for business purposes, including inspection, investment, employment or fulfilling contractual obligations.

Chen Tsung-yen, deputy head of the CECC, said:

We will open to foreign business people starting March 7 in line with some relaxations in the overall pandemic prevention measures.

Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau residents can only apply for entry to fulfil business contracts or due to transferrals within multinational companies.

Also from 7 March, the 14-day mandatory quarantine for all arrivals will be cut to 10 days, in addition to a week of monitoring at home.

A mask mandate and some other restrictions will be eased from 1 March, authorities said.

Chou Jih-haw, head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said:

We had some domestic cluster infections before Lunar New Year but the number of local cases continued to fall in recent weeks.

The domestic situation is stable and under control.

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