Reuters-YonhapThe UK government announced Wednesday that restrictions reimposed in England last month to fight the surge in Omicron coronavirus cases would be lifted, citing data that showed infections had peaked. Some have claimed relaxing the rules is driven by the embattled leader wanting to please critics angry at the revelations that he and his staff broke COVID lockdown rules by holding numerous parties at Downing Street. Johnson, who only has responsibility for health policy in England, reinstated the curbs last month to cope with what he called a "tidal wave" of expected infections from Omicron. Within weeks, Britain's daily caseload for COVID topped a record 200,000 infections in early January. That placed significant pressure on the state-run National Health Service nationwide and spiked the country's COVID death toll, which is now nearing 153,000.

Source: The Times January 20, 2022 03:14 UTC