Relaxed Regulations

Countries in the EU continue to relax Covid-related travel restrictions, as reported here on Schengen Visa Info.

Germany has done away with the requirement for infected people and their direct contacts to quarantine, as reported here by Reuters. Instead, there is now "isolation", which is only for the people infected, and only for 5 days. The country has also relaxed the mask requirement in most shops (although not on public transport), as reported by Deutsche Welle.

Immunity

The chances of achieving immunity seems to have evaporated. As new more-infectious variants emerge and take hold, which can infect even fully vaccinated and recovered people, scientists are starting to realise that Covid is here to stay, and the best we can do is to limit the severity and and number of infections.

Having said that, new research, reported here on Healthline, has shown that a combination of double or triple vaccination and infection with Covid provides fairly good protection, although not complete immunity.

Also, this Israeli study, reported by Haaretz shows that a 4^th vaccine dose cuts severe illness rates by three times compared to the triple-vaccinated.

Protection

Despite all the disinformation and conspiracy theories about mask wearing, new research, reported here on The Jerusalem Post, shows that a combination of social distancing by six feet, universal mask-wearing, and increased room ventilation provides protection against infection by Covid in 98% of cases.

More worrying is that fact that the various Omicron variants are infectious before they are detectable with tests, and before symptoms are apparent, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. This makes it very difficult for people to protect themselves and others.

Treatment

A recent study has shown that sabizabulin, a new oral medication from pharmaceutical company Veru has the potential to cut the virus’s mortality rate in half for moderate and severe cases, as reported by Fortune. The study was so successful that researchers stopped the trial early.

Effects of Covid-19

This report on the New Scientist (scroll down to the 7^th April entry) describes the huge increase in the risk of blood clots after a Covid infection: a 33-fold increase of lung clots within a month of being infected and a 5-fold increase in the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 3 months of infection. This BBC report states that a higher risk of blood clots persists for at least 6 months.