UK could be among the first countries to emerge from Covid pandemic, top scientist says - CNBC

Speaking of various responses to Covid, and particularly the latest wave of cases caused by the virulent omicron variant, leading public health official Professor David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said that "the U.K is the closest to any country in being out of the pandemic if it isn't already out of the pandemic and having the disease as endemic.".

Omicron was dubbed as "of concern" by the World Health Organization given the high number of mutations of the strain and fears it could undermine Covid vaccines.

Covid vaccination offers high levels of protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death and vaccine makers say early studies have shown that booster shots significantly restore protection against the omicron variant.

is steadily falling although they still remain at high levels; on Tuesday, over 120,000 cases were recorded.

and around Europe are operating at very high levels of capacity although hospitalizations remain at lower levels than in previous waves of the pandemic when vaccine coverage was lower.

Global health officials caution that it's too early to say the pandemic has entered an "endemic" phase, where there are persistent but low-to-moderate levels of Covid in any given population in future but the virus is not causing excessive levels of infection or spreading from country to country (which would make it a pandemic again).

The U.K.'s Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC Sunday that the country was on the road "from pandemic to endemic" as the government said it could reduce the period of self-isolation for vaccinated people who test positive for Covid from seven days to five (as with the latest guidance in the U.S.) to alleviate staff absences in the workplace and the massive economic disruption caused by Covid.