Covid: Camilla tests positive and PPE waste could be recycledon February 14, 2022 at 5:02 pm

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening. We’ll have another update for you in the morning.

The Duchess of Cornwall is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, Clarence House has confirmed. Her husband, the Prince of Wales, tested positive for the virus on Thursday but Camilla carried out three public engagements on that day after testing negative. Prince Charles met the Queen two days before his positive result, but a royal source said on Thursday she was showing no symptoms.

The prime minister’s responses to a police inquiry about No 10 gatherings during lockdown will not be made public, Downing Street has said. Boris Johnson was one of 50 people to be sent a questionnaire by Metropolitan Police officers investigating possible Covid-rule breaking. The PM declined to say whether he had completed his form, adding he would have more to say when the police had completed their inquiries.

A diplomat was suffering with extreme stress while working for the government’s Covid taskforce before going missing and later being found dead in a forest, an inquest has heard. Richard Morris’ body was discovered near his home in Hampshire in August 2020 after he disappeared in May. The former ambassador to Nepal’s wife said his taskforce work was “the most stressful job he had ever done” and he was “totally unprotected” from the demands of the role.

Medical face masks could be turned into curtains or bedsheets as a means of tackling pandemic-related PPE plastic waste, the government has said. Health minister Edward Argar said the Department of Health and Social Care was also considering how to recycle materials in Covid test kits. A study published last year found eight million tonnes of pandemic plastic waste had been generated worldwide, around 25,000 tonnes of which has ended up in the ocean.

Tube and bus fares are to be increased by an average of almost 5%, the highest annual jump in Transport for London (TfL) fares in a decade. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he had done everything “to keep fares as affordable as possible”, but said the rise was part of “strict conditions” set by the government as part of a bailout of the transport network needed after TfL’s finances were “decimated” by the pandemic.

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