UK needs to learn to live with COVID as variants continue to appear

216
2
UK needs to learn to live with COVID as variants continue to appear

Former British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that the U.K. government has to learn to live with COVID as variants such as the Omicron continue to appear.

May and other senior Conservative MPs have criticised the COVID response, saying variants will continue to appear year after year, so stopping and starting sectors of the economy is not an effective long-term strategy to keep the nation's safety and prevent its economy from collapsing.

The early indications of Omicron are that it is more transmissible, but potentially leads to less serious illness than other variants. May said that would be normal progress of a virus. When the government accepts that learning to live with COVID means we will almost certainly have an annual vaccine and we cannot respond to new variants by stopping and starting sectors of our economy which leads to businesses going down and jobs being lost? According to the Guardian, Conservative former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers criticised the government's decision to impose new expensive requirements for international travel, while former transport secretary Chris Grayling urged health secretary Sajid Javid to face down the more conservative elements of the scientific community, do the right, and keep the restrictions as minimal as possible. In the U.K., 76% of its population has at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, while 70% are fully vaccinated.

Although vaccination is important in reducing the risk of getting and spreading COVID - 19 it does not eliminate the chance of being infected with the disease.

There are multiple regions of England that have a community transmission of the Omicron coronaviruses variant. There have been 336 confirmed cases of the variant in the United Kingdom, a rise of 90 from Sunday.

Health officials are not sure whether this variant presents a different severity profile or whether it could escape protection against immunity induced by vaccines and previous infections.

As researchers learn more about the new variant, the World Health Organization announced that travel restrictions may be imposed by some countries to fight the new COVID 19 variant Omicron.

After the news, the U.K. tightened travel rules, saying all passengers arriving in England will have to take a COVID- 19 test before they can board their flight.