---

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to lift all remaining Covid restrictions in England.

• Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is anticipated to declare on Monday that all remaining Covid legal restrictions in England would be lifted.
• Physicians have expressed concern over the government's "living with Covid" scheme.
• Johnson said the rule change will be a "moment of pride following one of the most terrible moments in our country's history" ahead of the announcement.

LONDON, UK — As he lays out the government's long-term plan for living with the virus, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hail the elimination of all remaining Covid restrictions in England as a "moment of pride," causing anxiety among public health experts and opposition politicians.

The legal necessity to self-isolate for up to 10 days after testing positive will be lifted a month sooner than expected. The administration is also anticipated to reduce access to free Covid tests, which will be unpopular.

It comes just one day after the Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, tested positive for Covid. According to Buckingham Palace, the 95-year-old queen is having minor symptoms. Although it is widely assumed that the queen had three doses of coronavirus vaccine, only the first was legally acknowledged.

Physicians are concerned about the government's "living with Covid" plan, and the opposition Labour Party has questioned the decision to phase out free lateral flow tests.

Johnson said the rule change will be a "moment of pride following one of the most terrible moments in our country's history" ahead of the announcement.

"The pandemic isn't finished," Johnson said, "but owing to the great vaccine rollout, we're one step closer to restoring normalcy and ultimately giving people their freedoms while continuing to safeguard ourselves and others."

On Monday morning, the prime minister will convene with his Cabinet before briefing members in the House of Commons. Later in the day, there will be a press conference.

Following its immunisation programme, Downing Street claims it is in a "strong position" to discuss eliminating remaining legal restrictions in England. The government would continue to take a careful approach in learning to live with the virus because the pandemic "is not done."

In England, more than 81 percent of individuals have now had a booster vaccine, and cases are continuing to decline following the highs produced by the highly transmissible omicron strain.

On Feb. 20, the seven-day average of new Covid cases in the United Kingdom had dropped to 43,000, down from a high of over 183,000 on Jan. 5.

The United Kingdom has reported more than 18.7 million Covid cases and 161,148 deaths to date, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University. The United Kingdom is one of the countries with the highest Covid death toll in the world.

The scientific justification for the government's decision to stop free testing, surveillance surveys, and legal isolation of Covid cases was called into question in an open letter signed by approximately 300 scientists and physicians released on Sunday.

The authors of the letter have asked the government's scientific experts for clarification on the advice that underpins these decisions.

The government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has stated that the direction the epidemic will now take in the United Kingdom is unpredictable.

On Saturday, Labour's health spokesman Wes Streeting tweeted, "Boris Johnson is declaring victory before the war is done, in an attempt to divert from the cops knocking at his door."

Last Monday, Downing Street acknowledged that Johnson had drafted a response to police enquiries concerning parties conducted in the previous two years. Despite public outrage over a vast and growing list of suspected lockdown breaches, the prime leader has so far withstood repeated calls to resign from across the political spectrum.

Meanwhile, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford warned on Monday that ending the free Covid testing programme in England would be "rash and premature."

"Any decision to effectively shut down our National Testing Program with no plans in place to restart it would put lives in danger." "This is not acceptable," Drakeford stated emphatically.

Health and social care policy in the United Kingdom is devolved, with separate arrangements in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Is it an all-or-nothing strategy?

WHO public health experts and infectious disease epidemiologists have recommended authorities to avoid taking a "all or nothing" approach to health regulations.

"We understand the desire to open up, the desire to return to normalcy. But if that desire to return to normalcy in that sense is going to keep this pandemic lasting much longer than it needs to, we need to think about it," said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, last week.

"It will be extremely difficult to put anything back in place if we get attacked with another version after we've already abandoned all measures," he continued.

The WHO's technical head on Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, said on Thursday that some countries are in a better position to lift Covid measures because they have high vaccination coverage and population immunity. "However, in many countries, lifting everything at once is unwise."

"All we need is for governments not to take this all-or-nothing attitude because it is confusing, and I don't blame anyone who is puzzled," she continued.