A bishop in south London faces one year in prison and suspension for two years for selling fake COVID-19 kits to his church members.
In December, Bishop Climate Wiseman of Kingdom Church, Camberwell, was found guilty of fraud for telling individuals they would "drop dead" if they didn't purchase the kits with COVID-19 cure, according to the BBC.
Inner London Crown Court sentenced him to pay £60,000 ($72,347) costs. His guilt was proven by evidence gathered from an investigation by the BBC.
During the first shutdown in 2020, he began selling kits consisting of red yarn and bottles of oil for about £90 ( ($108). Wiseman claimed the Fake COVID-19 kits would safeguard buyers against the infection and eliminate the need to practice social distancing.
A BBC investigative team obtained a private tip that the church was offering the Fake COVID-19 kits as a treatment for COVID-19, and they used that information together with covert phone records to build a case against him.
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There has been a pause in the recent decline of hospitalized coronavirus patients, and specialists have expressed "concerning" indicators that the number may be on the increase again.
The Office for National Statistics reported that 941,800 UK private homes were expected to have acquired COVID-19 in the seven days ending January 24, down 15% from 1.1 million the week before, per The Scotsman.
Orthrus Variant Infections on the Rise
One study found that around a quarter of the cases in England were caused by the new COVID-19 subvariant Orthrus, according to The Independent.
The UK Health Security Agency predicts that CH.1.1, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variety, will overtake BQ.1 as the dominant variant.
The latest UKHSA numbers reveal that by the first day of January, 23.1% of all infections in England were the new variety, while sequencing shows it might account for 100 percent in certain places.
Data from that week suggests that Orthrus was responsible for roughly 8,700 cases, while authorities caution that variant estimates are inconclusive.
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