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Are supermarkets superspreader centres?

A PIECE in the Daily Mail suggested that some people think they caught Covid as the result of a single trip to the supermarket.

To back up this scary claim, the paper quoted Leicester Royal Infirmary virologist Dr Julian Tang, who suggests supermarkets are an obvi­ous place for infection.


“They’re the epicentre of a community and people from all over town will be there on a pretty regular basis,” said Tang, who believes he caught Covid last May at a supermarket.

“Social distancing can be difficult in super­markets, and many have poor ventilation sys­tems, meaning the virus can linger in the air.

“My wife and I hadn’t been anywhere in months where we had come into contact with people. And then, after a trip to the supermar­ket, I got ill and later tested positive.

“It’s hard to know for sure, but standing next to someone at the checkout, even socially dis­tanced and masked, can be a risk as Covid can pass through the sides of a mask.

“Checkout workers may also be at risk because they come into contact with so many people throughout their shift. Those screens they have in front of them don’t offer much protection.”

The government has said we should even keep visits to supermarkets to a minimum.

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From Budapest to Washington: What Orbán’s Defeat Means for the West

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban reacts as he speaks to voters at an election campaign rally two days before parliamentary elections on April 10, 2026 in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.

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From Budapest to Washington: What Orbán’s Defeat Means for the West

Sunder Katwala

The Budapest crowds celebrating Viktor Orban’s defeat after 16 years in power in Hungary seemed to evoke more the euphoric spirit of the East European regime changes of 1989 rather than a general election result.

Yet 1989 had been the year of hope in which Orban himself burst onto the Hungarian political scene. He began as a young democrat, who fused anti-Communism with an appeal to Hungarian pride in the memory of the democratic uprising of 1956, crushed by Soviet tanks. Could that young Orban - who once led crowds chanting “Russians go home” have imagined he would travel so far to become Vladimir Putin’s chief autocratic ally in Europe, so that the same “Russians go home” chant now rang out to celebrate his demise, as new prime minister Peter Magyar made his victory speech. There was, at least, relief at Orban’s rapid concession, recognising his landslide defeat.

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