Charlotte Johnson Wahl, a professional painter and the mother of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, died on Monday, September 13. Charlotte Johnson was 79 years old. The news was reported by the Telegraph newspaper earlier. 

The newspaper reported in accordance with a statement received by the family that Johnson Wahl passed away “suddenly and peacefully”. No response could be received from Downing Street on request of comments. Representatives of the family could not be immediately reached.

Johnson had described his mother as the “superior authority” in the family during the Conservative PartyÂs annual conference in 2019. “I am going to quote that supreme authority in my family – my mother, and by the way for keen students of the divisions in my family on matters of the EU, I want you to know that I have kept the ace up my sleeve – my mother voted ‘leave,’Â Prime Minister Johnson said then. According to The Telegraph, Johnson Wahl was diagnosed with ParkinsonÂs disease at the age of 40.

“I try to paint every day if I possibly can, though I have to go to the hospital a lot. I still manage to paint, though my arm will suddenly do a movement which is completely unintentional, and that almost brings me to tears,” she told the newspaper in an interview in 2008. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out the government’s winter plan for managing Covid-19 this week, Downing Street said on Monday. Vaccines will continue to be the “first line of defense” over the coming autumn and winter months, supported by new treatments, testing, and the UK’s “world-leading” variant surveillance system, with further lockdowns expected to be ruled out.

Under the autumn-winter proposals, the government is set to repeal some powers of its emergency Coronavirus Act, brought in to tackle the pandemic last year. “Thanks to the efforts of the public, the NHS, and our phenomenal vaccination program, we reached Step 4 in our (lockdown) Roadmap and life has returned to a sense of normality,” said Johnson, ahead of a planned press conference on Tuesday.

“These extraordinary times required necessary but intrusive measures. But I’m determined to get rid of any powers we no longer need because of our vaccine defenses. I will set out the next phase in our Covid response shortly,” he said.

Downing Street has said that while certain powers, such as closing down sectors of the economy, schools, and detention of infectious people are set to go, some vital powers from the Coronavirus Act will be retained to protect and support the public. This includes giving sick pay to those isolated from day one rather than day seven, directing schools to remain open if they close against government guidance, and helping the national health service (NHS) to get the emergency resource it needs.

Legal requirements will remain for someone to isolate if they test positive, to protect the most vulnerable from infection, and to control the spread of variants. Downing Street said that as of September 9, nearly 90 percent of the UK population aged over 16 have received a first dose of the Covid vaccine, and over 80 percent have received both doses.

The latest data from Public Health England (PHE) shows Covid vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization from the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, first detected in India and currently the dominant strain in the UK. Analysis shows the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 96 percent effective and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – being administered in India as Covishield – is 92 percent effective against hospitalization after two doses.

Continue Reading on The India Saga