Here’s your weekly round-up of COVID news and all the things you need to know that have happened this week:
Who is still entitled to get free Covid-19 tests across the UK and can I buy LFTs?
Most people with symptoms are no longer entitled to free PCR tests either however some groups still qualify for free tests including:
- NHS staff who care for patients
- hospital patients who need PCRs before treatment
- care home residents
- people working in high-risk settings, including care homes and prisons
- hospital patients who are discharged to care homes or hospices
Government Approved FlowFlex Rapid Antigen Tests can be purchased from as little as £1.99 through official distributors like rapidflowflextest.co.uk.
COVID-19: Women are more likely than men to gain weight during pandemic lockdowns, study suggests.
Deeper analysis of the data showed that the vast majority remained in the same BMI category both prior to and after lockdown – but of those who were overweight, 11% gained weight while 12% lost weight.
North Korea: ‘First’ Covid-19 cases prompt strict national lockdown after Omicron detected in Pyongyang.
North Korea has implemented a very strict national lockdown having confirmed its first official Covid-19 infections.
State media have reported a highly contagious Omicron outbreak in the capital, Pyongyang, but the number of confirmed cases has not yet been revealed.
North Korea has refused any kind of vaccine programme, even turning down programmes offered to them by other countries.
World complacent on Covid-19, warns former UK prime minister
Gordon Brown has warned that the world risks “sleepwalking” into yet another Coronavirus variant crisis if it does not increase vaccinations in low-income countries.
He sais wealthier countries needed to do more to share the cost of global vaccinations, tests and treatments, he told the BBC.