Living with COVID: Experts divided on UK plan as cases soar

By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — For many in the U.K., the pandemic may as well be over. Mask requirements have been dropped everywhere and free mass testing is a thing of the past. The sense of freedom is widespread even as infections soared in Britain in March, driven by the milder but more transmissible omicron BA.2 variant that’s rapidly spreading around Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere. France and Germany have seen similar big spikes in infections in recent weeks, and the number of hospitalizations in the U.K. and France have climbed again. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservative government is determined to stick to its “living with COVID” plan, but experts disagree on whether the country is coping well.