Experts divided on UK plan as cases soar

LONDON (AP) — For many in the United Kingdom, the pandemic may as well be over.

Mask requirements have been dropped. Free mass testing is a thing of the past. And for the first time since spring 2020, people can go abroad for holidays without ordering tests or filling out lengthy forms.

That sense of freedom is widespread even as infections soared in Britain in March, driven by the milder but more transmissible omicron BA.2 variant that's rapidly spreading around Europe, the US and elsewhere.

The situation in the UK may portend what lies ahead for other countries as they ease coronavirus restrictions.

France and Germany have seen similar spikes in infections in recent weeks, and the number of hospitalisations in the US and France has again climbed — though the number of deaths per day remains well below levels seen earlier in the pandemic.

Britain stands out in Europe because it ditched all mitigation policies in February, including mandatory self-isolation for those infected.

Some scientists argue it's the right time to accept that “living with COVID” means tolerating a certain level of disruption and deaths, much like we do for seasonal flu.

Others believe that Britain's government lifted restrictions too quickly and too soon.

They warned that deaths and hospital admissions could keep rising because more people over 55 — those who are most likely to get seriously ill from COVID-19 — are now getting infected despite high levels of vaccination.

Hospitals are again under strain, both from patients with the virus and huge numbers of staff off sick, said National Health Service medical director Stephen Powis.

Others, like Paul Hunter, a medicine professor at the University of East Anglia, are more supportive of the government's policies.

Britain's official statistics agency estimated that almost five million UK residents, or 1 in 13, had the virus in late March, the most it had reported.

Separately, the REACT study from London's Imperial College said its data showed that the country's infection levels in March were 40% higher than the first omicron peak in January.

Infection rates are so high that airlines had to cancel flights during the busy two-week Easter break because too many workers were calling in sick.

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