Covid news: Sweden scraps almost all restrictions and testing despite pleas from scientists; Spain’s King Felipe tests positive – as it happened

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Sweden scraps almost all of its few restrictions and stops most testing; Spain's King Felipe tests positive after displaying mild symptoms

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• Arrests in Ottawa as Canadian truckers block main bridge to US

Sajid Javid, the UK health secretary, has pledged to recruit 15,000 new health workers by the end of March to tackle the pandemic treatment backlog.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the NHS planned to recruit 10,000 more nurses from overseas and 5,000 more healthcare support workers by the end of March" to improve capacity.

Remove your mask," a man demands, as I walk through the crowd. When I say I would like to keep it on, he immediately asks if I'm from mainstream media. I reply that I am and he says don't twist the truth just because you're on the government dollars". He is not the only one demanding I remove the mask.