Swedish crown princess ,infected
By Nidz Godino
“The crown princess, who is fully vaccinated, is experiencing cold symptoms but is otherwise feeling well, contact tracing has begun,” the Royal Court said Swedish Crown Princess Victoria has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, the heir to the throne was fully vaccinated.
Earlier this week her parents, the king and queen of Sweden, both also tested positive amid mounting fourth wave of the virus, driven by highly contagious omicron variant, that has seen the country repeatedly report record daily case numbers.
The Royal Court said in a statement the crown princess, who is 44 and has contracted the virus once before, was isolating at home with her family.
While COVID infections have soared, hospitalizations have also risen sharply and put pressure on the healthcare system, but remain well below the peaks encountered in previous waves. Death have so far remained comparatively low.
Prince Charles, the eldest son and heir to Queen Elizabeth II, is isolating after testing positive for coronavirus for the second time.
“The Prince of Wales has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now self-isolating,” said a message on the prince’s official Twitter page.
The prince met the Queen in Windsor 2 days before testing positive, according to British media reports.
But the 95-year-old monarch is not currently displaying any symptoms, an unnamed royal source told media.
Buckingham Palace did not say whether the Queen had tested positive or negative for the virus.
Last year the palace was criticized for lack of transparency before confirming that the Queen had spent a night in hospital for “preliminary” tests, the nature have never been specified.
Charles had been due to unveil a statue in Winchester, southern England, on Thursday but his attendance was cancelled at the last minute, leaving him “deeply disappointed”, Clarence House said.
The Queen, who isolated in her own “bubble” because of her age at Windsor Castle, west of London, when the pandemic struck in early 2020, has had recent health problems that forced her to take a step back from official duties on medical advice.
She once again filling up her diary as a year of celebrations began this week to mark her record-breaking 70 years on the throne.
The 73-year-old prince first tested positive in March 2020 and subsequently spent around a week isolating at the Queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland.
Charles met several people at a reception in the British Museum on Wednesday, including finance minister Rishi Sunak and interior minister Priti Patel.
His staff said the Prince’s 2nd bout of coronavirus was discovered after a routine test. He has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
England will scrap legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19 later this month if infection levels remain stable, Prime Minister Boris Johnson unexpectedly announced earlier.
The proposed move would be one of the most dramatic easings of coronavirus rules taken by any country so far in the pandemic, as Johnson doubles down on a strategy of trying to “live with COVID”.
It is likely to prove controversial, with health experts warning much of the world still needs to be vaccinated and UK opposition politicians asking whether government’s scientific advisers support planned change.
Johnson, dogged by revelations of apparent breaches of COVID rules at Downing Street that have led to calls for him to quit, had earlier said he aimed to end the self-isolation rules on March 24.
But addressing lawmakers before parliament goes into recess on Thursday until February 21, he said he would bring change forward by a month, to cheers from hordes of his fellow Conservative MPs who have grown increasingly weary with the restrictions.
“It is my intention to return on the first day after the half-term recess to present our strategy for living with COVID,” Johnson told parliament.
“Provided the current encouraging trends in data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions including legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive a full month early.”
Johnson’s spokesman later told reporters it was justified by falling case numbers and hospitalization rates but noted the law to self-isolate could be reimposed promptly in response to a dangerous new variant.
The UK government only has responsibility for health policy in England, with devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland setting their own rules.
England lifted almost all coronavirus restrictions in late January that had been reimposed in early December to tackle omicron variant, with masks no longer required in enclosed places and vaccine passports shelved.
That came weeks after the government cut the minimum self-isolation period for those with COVID-19 from seven to five days to help boost economic activity.
Meanwhile, it has been gradually easing rules around international travel, with the need for fully vaccinated travellers to test for COVID-19 before or after arriving in UK set to end later this week.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases has fallen sharply since new year. Although still at high levels, figures have kept falling in the weeks following easing of measures.
The government announced 66,183 new infections on Tuesday, as well as 314 new deaths from the virus, taking the country’s total toll to nearly 159,000 one of the highest in Europe.
Ahead of Johnson’s unexpected announcement, Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the World Health Organization director-general, warned that COVID-19 numbers globally are still “absolutely staggering”.
“What we’re learning to live with is not just this virus, but what should be an unacceptable burden of disease, an unacceptable number of deaths every single day”.
Aylward urged Western countries such as Britain to step up investment in the global vaccination efforts.
Spain’s King Felipe VI has tested positive for COVID-19 but is experiencing only mild symptoms, the royal palace said Wednesday.
The 54-year-old monarch tested positive on Wednesday morning “after experiencing mild symptoms the night before”, it said in a statement.
“His Majesty’s general state of health is good and he will keep up his institutional activities from his residence,” it said, adding he will quarantine for seven days.
The king had been due to meet with Zeljko Komsic, the Croatian member of the Bosnian presidency, in Madrid later on Wednesday.
King Felipe received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in May 2021. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wished King Felipe a “speedy recovery”, adding in a tweet that he hoped the monarch will “quickly return to normal life”.
Queen Letizia and the couple’s younger daughter Sofia are not showing symptoms and will continue their activities normally.
Their elder daughter and heir to the Spanish throne, Leonor, attends a boarding school in Wales.
Spain will on Thursday scrap a mandate to wear face masks outdoors as COVID-19 infection rates drop and hospitals report lower admissions.
The measure reverses a step taken last December amid surge of infections fuelled by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Masks remain mandatory in indoor public spaces, including public transport.
So far, Spain has registered some 10.4 million cases of the virus, and 95,000 deaths.
Spain lifted a requirement to wear face masks outdoors on Thursday as COVID-19 infections continue to recede from record heights but some Spaniards, wary of contagion, chose to keep the face coverings on.
The national infection rate as measured over the preceding 14 days has halved in three weeks, falling to 1,692 cases on Wednesday from a peak of 3,397 cases per 100,000 on Jan. 17, prompting authorities across the country to ease restrictions.
Masks are still mandatory in enclosed spaces and on public transport but almost all regions have lifted requirements to show a COVID passport to enter bars and nightclubs.
ISKUP! 