Jan 18 (Reuters) – Governments worldwide are easing quarantine rules, reviewing coronavirus curbs and dialling back pandemic-era emergency support as they bid to launch their economies back into some version of normality. “What we are seeing is an economy that functions right through these waves of COVID,” U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last week. In October, the Fund forecast global economic growth of 4.9% this year, while underscoring uncertainty posed by the coronavirus. And while the belief that the global recovery can live with Omicron may be expedient, it may yet run up against the hard facts of epidemiology. Lawrence Young, Professor of Molecular Oncology, University of Warwick, said U.S. and Japanese studies showing that more than 30% of cases remain highly infectious after five days suggest moves to relax quarantine rules could backfire.
