Leadership threat to PM grows and England rules set to ease

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning. We’ll have another update for you this evening.

Amid questions over his leadership, Boris Johnson is expected to make an announcement to ease coronavirus restrictions in England. There will be a review of the data later, which will inform a decision whether to change measures in place under Plan B – including face masks on transport and guidance to work from home where possible. They are due to expire next week. So far, the picture looks “encouraging”, the government says, as cases fall. But it says any decision will be “finely balanced”.

The coronavirus pandemic “is nowhere near over”, warns the head of the World Health Organization. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the message to world leaders as he revealed the Omicron variant had led to 18 million new infections globally over the past week. He urged caution about assuming this strain is significantly milder and that it had eliminated the threat posed by the virus. Read more here.

Misleading information online has dissuaded some people from taking vaccines. There’s also been violence and vandalism linked to inaccurate or completely made-up claims about 5G and the origins of Covid-19. Removing all this information can be viewed as censorship, so what should happen to scientific misinformation on social media? Our health and disinformation reporter Rachel Schraer has investigated.

“You’re meant to work to live rather than the other way round and the rising costs of everything aren’t helping young people at the moment,” says 21-year-old Jessica Langton. She falls into the Gen Z category of adults aged 18 to 25, who are experiencing significant inflation in their lifetime. Their lives and careers have been some of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Find out how they are being affected as the latest figures show cost of living surged by 5.4%, making it highest rate of increase for 30 years.

You’ve found out you’ve got Covid, so what do you do now? Tell people you have the virus is one of the things experts recommend. Here are some others.

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