"Pingdemic Chaos" Mars Boris Johnson's Big Day Of Ending UK Covid Curbs

A National Health Service app ordered hundreds of thousands of people to self-isolate, prompting warnings supermarket shelves could soon be emptied, on the day England lifted all COVID-19 restrictions.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 'freedom day' ending over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England was marred on Monday by surging infections, warnings of supermarket shortages and his own forced self-isolation. Johnson's bet that he can get one of Europe's largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated marks a new chapter in the global response to the coronavirus. If the vaccines prove effective in reducing severe illness and deaths even while infections reach record levels, Johnson's decision could offer a path out of the worst public health crisis in decades. If not, more lockdowns could loom. But Johnson's big day was marred by "pingdemic chaos" as a National Health Service app ordered hundreds of thousands of people to self-isolate - prompting warnings supermarket shelves could soon be emptied.