Britain paused Wednesday to remember the thousands of lives lost to the coronavirus in the two years since Prime Minister Boris Johnson plunged the country into its first lockdown with the command: “You must stay at home.”
The strict lockdown imposed on March 23, 2020 shut offices, schools, restaurants, shops and playgrounds, and people who did not work in essential jobs only were allowed outside for exercise and limited tasks. The stringent measures lasted for about three months, and on-off restrictions continued until early this year.
With civic freedoms restored but new confirmed cases rising once again, Wednesday was designated a day of reflection on a pandemic that has claimed almost 164,000 lives in the U.K., the highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe after Russia.
Britain also had one of the developed world’s deepest economic downturns as the pandemic closed down swaths of the economy.
Members of bereaved families on Wednesday tied yellow ribbons to Westminster Bridge beside Parliament, near a memorial wall for pandemic victims emblazoned with thousands of hand-painted hearts. A minute’s silence was held at noon (1200GMT), and people were encouraged to show flowers or shine a light in their window at 8 p.m.
“Those lost to COVID will never be out of our hearts and minds, and today we reflect as a nation,” Johnson said in a message to mark the anniversary.
Johnson, who was hospitalized in intensive care with COVID-19 in April 2020, said he had seen “first-hand the heroic efforts” of medical personnel. He paid tribute “to them, the grief counsellors, charity workers and friends and families, as we pause to remember those we have lost.”
The government’s opponents and public health experts heavily criticized Britain’s response to the pandemic. They said scientists’ recommendations were not always heeded by a prime minister whose laissez-faire instincts made him reluctant to clamp down on the economy and daily life.
After pressure from bereaved families, Johnson agreed to hold a public inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic, led by a retired senior judge. It is due to start hearings within weeks.
Critics say Johnson was slow to impose a lockdown as a new respiratory virus first seen in China started to spread early in 2020 and claim the delay cost thousands of lives.
Johnson wavered again as infections soared in the fall of 2020 but finally ordered a second lockdown. Weary Britons endured a third lockdown in the early months of 2021, when the more transmissible delta variant put Britain at the epicenter of Europe’s pandemic.
Months of gradually loosening restrictions followed until England lifted mask-wearing rules, mandatory self-isolation for the infectious and other remaining restrictions even as omicron, the most transmissible variant yet, swept in. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have eased up more slowly.
“We got the big calls right during the pandemic,” Johnson insisted in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Scientists agree that one success was the U.K.’s rapid and widely supported vaccination program. Almost 92% of people age 12 and up have had two doses of a vaccine, and two-thirds have had a third, booster shot. Fourth doses are being given to the vulnerable and those age 75 and over.
Vaccination means that although cases are once again rising in the U.K. — driven by a subvariant of omicron that is even more easily spread — hospitalizations and deaths remain well below previous peaks.
Julie Pearce, chief nurse at the Marie Curie health charity, which organized Wednesday’s commemoration events, said the anniversary was an opportunity to reflect and connect with others.
“While life is beginning to return to normal for some people, several million people are still living with the trauma of loss and not being able to grieve properly,” Pearce said. “Let’s take time to connect and show support for the millions of people who are grieving, and remember the family, friends, neighbors and colleagues we’ve lost over the last two years.”
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine works in babies, toddlers and preschoolers the company announced Wednesday — and if regulators agree it could mean a chance to finally start vaccinating the littlest kids by summer.
Moderna said in the coming weeks it would ask regulators in the U.S. and Europe to authorize two small-dose shots for youngsters under 6. The company also is seeking to have larger-dose shots cleared for older children and teens in the U.S.
The nation’s 18 million children under 5 are the only age group not yet eligible for vaccination. Competitor Pfizer currently offers kid-sized doses for school-age children and full-strength shots for those 12 and older.
But parents have anxiously awaited protection for younger tots, disappointed by setbacks and confusion over which shots might work and when. Pfizer is testing even smaller doses for children under 5 but had to add a third shot to its study when two didn’t prove strong enough. Those results are expected by early April.
Vaccinating the littlest “has been somewhat of a moving target over the last couple of months,” Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, an investigator in Moderna’s pediatric studies, said in an interview before the company released its findings. “There’s still, I think, a lingering urgency to try to get that done as soon as possible.”
The younger the child, the smaller the dose being tested. Moderna said a quarter of the dose it uses for adults worked well for youngsters under age 6.
Moderna enrolled about 6,900 tots in a study of the 25-microgram doses. Early data showed after two shots, youngsters developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as young adults getting regular-strength shots, the company said in a press release.
Moderna said the small doses were safe, and the main side effects were mild fevers like those associated with other commonly used pediatric vaccines.
Once Moderna submits the data to the FDA, regulators will debate whether to authorize emergency use of the small doses for tots. If so, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then will decide whether to recommend them.
While COVID-19 generally isn’t as dangerous to youngsters as to adults, some do become severely ill. The CDC says about 400 children younger than 5 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic’s start. The omicron variant hit children especially hard, with those under 5 hospitalized at higher rates than at the peak of the previous delta surge, the CDC found.
COVID-19 vaccines in general don’t prevent infection with the omicron mutant as well as they fended off earlier variants — but they do still offer strong protection against severe illness.
Moderna reported that same trend in the trial of children under 6, conducted during the omicron surge. While there were no severe illnesses, the vaccine proved just under 44% effective at preventing any infection in babies up to age 2, and nearly 38% effective in the preschoolers.
Moderna said also said Wednesday it will ask the Food and Drug Administration to clear larger doses for older children.
While other countries already have allowed Moderna’s shots to be used in children as young as 6, the U.S. has limited its vaccine to adults. A Moderna request to expand its shots to 12- to 17-year-olds has been stalled for months.
The company said Wednesday that, armed with additional evidence, it is updating its FDA application for teen shots and requesting a green light for 6- to 11-year-olds, too.
Moderna says its original adult dose — two 100-microgram shots — is safe and effective in 12- to 17-year-olds. For elementary-age kids, it’s using half the adult dose.
But the FDA never ruled on Moderna’s application for teen shots because of concern about a very rare side effect. Heart inflammation sometimes occurs in teens and young adults, mostly males, after receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Moderna is getting extra scrutiny because its shots are a far higher dose than Pfizer’s.
The risk also seems linked to puberty, and regulators in Canada, Europe and elsewhere recently expanded Moderna vaccinations to kids as young as 6.
“That concern has not been seen in the younger children,” said Northwestern’s Muller.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The number of new coronavirus cases globally increased by 7% in the last week, driven by rising infections in the Western Pacific, even as reported deaths from COVID-19 fell, the World Health Organization said.
There were more than 12 million new weekly cases and just under 33,000 deaths, a 23% decline in mortality, according to the U.N. health agency’s report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday.
Confirmed cases of the virus had been falling steadily worldwide since January but rose again last week, due to the more infectious omicron variant and the suspension of COVID-19 protocols in numerous countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Health officials have said repeatedly that omicron causes milder disease than previous versions of the coronavirus and that vaccination, including a booster, appears highly protective.
The Western Pacific remained the only region in the world where coronavirus cases are rising, reporting a 21% jump last week, continuing weeks of increase. According to figures from last week, the number of new infections in Europe remained stable and fell everywhere else.
WHO cautioned that with many countries dropping widespread testing programs, many infections are likely being missed and new case numbers should be interpreted cautiously.
In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases inched upward across Europe, prompted by the more infectious BA.2 subvariant of omicron and the relaxation of nearly all public health measures.
WHO Europe chief Dr. Hans Kluge said restrictions in numerous countries across the continent had been lifted “brutally – from too much to too few,” noting that in recent days, cases were rising significantly in the U.K., France, Italy and Germany.
Last week, British health minister Sajid Javid said U.K. residents should brace for a jump in COVID-19 infections but that the country was still “in a very good position” due to its high vaccination levels.
Meanwhile, China’s health authorities this week reported the first coronavirus deaths in more than a year as the country battles its worst outbreak since the coronavirus was detected in Wuhan.
The semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong is also entrenched in a deadly wave of COVID-19, and the city of 7 million has recorded more deaths than mainland China during the pandemic.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said this week that authorities would consider relaxing some of its strict pandemic measures as cases begin to fall after weeks of rising cases overloaded hospitals and cemeteries.
New Zealand will remove many of its COVID-19 pandemic mandates over the next two weeks as an outbreak of the omicron variant begins to wane.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that people will no longer need to be vaccinated to visit places like retail stores, restaurants and bars from April 4. Gone, too, will be a requirement to scan QR barcodes at those venues.
A vaccine mandate will be scrapped for some workers — including teachers, police officers and waiters — though it will continue for health care and aged-care workers, border workers and corrections officers.
Also gone from Friday is a limit on outdoor crowds of 100. That will allow some concerts and big sporting events like marathons to resume. An indoor limit of 100 people will be raised to 200 people, and could later be removed altogether.
Remaining in place is a requirement that people wear masks in many enclosed spaces, including in stores, on public transport and, for children aged 8 and over, in school classrooms.
Ardern said the government’s actions over the past two years to limit the spread of the coronavirus had saved thousands of lives and helped the economy.
“But while we’ve been successful, it’s also been bloody hard,” Ardern said.
“Everyone has had to give up something to make this work, and some more than others,” she said.
The changes mean that many restrictions will be removed before tourists start arriving back in New Zealand.
Earlier this month, the government announced that Australian tourists would be welcomed back from April 12 and tourists from many other countries, including the U.S., Canada, and Britain, from May 1.
International tourism used to account for about 20% of New Zealand’s foreign income and more than 5% of GDP but evaporated after the South Pacific nation imposed some of the world’s strictest border controls after the pandemic began.
New Zealand continues to see some of its highest rates of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations since the pandemic began, with an average 17,000 new infections being reported each day.
But Ardern said modeling shows that the biggest city of Auckland is already significantly past the peak of its omicron outbreak and the rest of the country will soon follow.
Health experts warned that some countries which had dropped restrictions as omicron faded were now experiencing another surge of cases.
Total Doses Distributed = 698,418,375. Total Doses Administered = 558,649,472. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 254,925,941. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 217,110,680.
With coronavirus cases rising in parts of Europe and Asia, scientists worry that an extra-contagious version of the omicron variant may soon push cases up in the United States too.
Experts are also keeping their eyes on another mutant: a rare delta-omicron hybrid that they say doesn’t pose much of a threat right now but shows how wily the coronavirus can be.
The U.S. will likely see an uptick in cases caused by the omicron descendant BA.2 starting in the next few weeks, according to Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute.
“It’s inevitable we will see a BA.2 wave here,” he said.
One reason? After about two months of falling COVID-19 cases, pandemic restrictions have been lifted across the U.S. Many people are taking off their masks and returning to indoor spaces like restaurants and theaters.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, told ABC’s “This Week” over the weekend that he also thinks the U.S. will likely face an “uptick” similar to what’s happening in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, where BA.2 is the dominant strain. He said he doesn’t think it will be a “surge.”
The U.K. has “had the same situation as we’ve had now,” Fauci said. “They have BA.2. They have a relaxation of some restrictions such as indoor masking and there’s a waning of immunity” from vaccines and past infections.
In the U.S., the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows overall COVID-19 cases have been trending down. But the share caused by BA.2 is up significantly; the variant accounted for about 35% of new infections reported last week.
Keri Althoff, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, cautioned that CDC case counts underestimate the true numbers because some people are no longer getting tested and others are testing at home and not reporting the results. Also, she said, not every specimen is genetically sequenced to determine the variant.
It’s clear, she said, “BA.2 is coming onto the scene.”
One reason the variant has gained ground, scientists say, is that it’s about 30% more contagious than the original omicron. In rare cases, research shows it can sicken people even if they’ve already had an omicron infection — although it doesn’t seem to cause more severe disease.
Vaccines appear just as effective against both types of omicron, but breakthrough infections are possible. And experts point out that vaccination rates are lower in the U.S. than the U.K. About 74% of those 12 and older are fully vaccinated in the U.S, compared with 86% in the U.K.
”We need to emphasize that we’re not protected in this country compared to peer countries,” Topol said.
Still, not all experts are equally concerned about a BA.2-related rise in U.S. cases. Dr. James Musser, head of genomic medicine and infectious diseases at Houston Methodist, said the variant has so far only caused about 1% to 3% of cases in his medical system. Cases there have usually tracked closely with what’s happening in the U.K.
He called BA.2 “something we’re keeping an eye on,” but said, “I’m not losing sleep” over it.
That’s how many scientists view the other variant that some in the public are calling “deltacron,” a hybrid containing genetic information from both delta and omicron.
Earlier this month, Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization said the hybrid has been detected at “very low levels” in France, the Netherlands and Denmark. And two recent studies, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, point to a tiny number of cases in the U.S.
Much remains unknown about the hybrid. There’s no evidence it causes more severe disease, and it doesn’t look like it’s infecting many people. CDC researchers identified 9 samples, seven from the mid-Atlantic region in a study released Monday that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. Topol, who was not involved in the research, said there’s no evidence it has the potential to spread.
It’s common for coronaviruses to shuffle gene segments, said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. With two variants circulating at the same time, people may get double infections, and a “progeny virus” could emerge.
Given the virus’ ability to spawn new mutants — and the rise of BA.2 — experts say people should get vaccinated if they’re not and keep their masks handy.
“Keep your guard up,” Topol said. “This is not over.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
