With vaccinations lowering covid-19 death rates, many countries chose to end almost all other measures to control the spread of the coronavirus in 2022 鈥� but the virus is still causing waves of illness worldwide.
Early in the year, some nations began to abandon mitigation measures. Towards the end of February, Iceland鈥檚 strategy shifted from zero covid to 鈥渉erd immunity鈥�, which it hoped to achieve by allowing SARS-CoV-2 to spread while shielding vulnerable people. Days later, Iceland鈥檚 daily new reported infections reached the equivalent of 8154 cases per 1 million people, more than double seen a month earlier.
The approach was controversial, but this kind of strategy was eventually applied throughout Europe as countries lifted their restrictions, says at University College London.
Advertisement
The start of the year also saw the omicron variant fuel a worldwide surge in cases, particularly in Hong Kong, which had had few infections up to this time and hadn鈥檛 vaccinated many of its older people. Hospitals were overwhelmed, leading to exceptionally high death rates.
As omicron swept through the UK, a record number of infections was recorded in England in January and then again in March. The UK government鈥檚 plan for 鈥渓iving with covid鈥� saw legal self-isolation requirements end in February and, from April, those who tested positive were no longer officially advised to stay at home.
As widespread testing ended in the country, it became harder to track the virus鈥檚 impact. But according to the UK鈥檚 Office for National Statistics, which has continued its testing surveys, 1 in 55 people outside of healthcare settings in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales had the virus in early November, and 1 in 60 people did in England. At that time, an estimated 2.1 million people in the UK had long covid symptoms.
鈥淚 think we鈥檝e seen over the last year that the current vaccination strategy alone isn鈥檛 sufficient to keep covid at bay,鈥� says at the University of Bath, UK.
The US and many other countries also dropped covid-19 measures throughout the year, with Australia and New Zealand fully reopening their borders in February and July, respectively.
China, however, continued its zero-covid approach, with infected people made to go to quarantine camps. That only changed in December, when protests against the economic and social costs of the strategy forced a rethink.
In the face of waning immunity and an ever-evolving virus, it is clear that herd immunity won鈥檛 be possible anywhere without better vaccines. Going into 2023, big questions remain over the long-term health impacts of the virus and the best way to manage successive waves of infection.
