Sun 20 February 2022:
Boris Johnson’s office said on Saturday that he intends to lay out plans next week to lift the self-isolation mandate for people infected with Covid.
If the relaxation takes effect, Britain will become the first major European country to allow people who know they have COVID-19 to freely use shops, public transportation, and go to work — a move that many of his health advisors believe is risky.
Boris Johnson is set to announce the removal of the legal duty to self-isolate as part of his “living with Covid” plan.
Downing Street said Boris Johnson intends to repeal all pandemic regulations that restrict public freedoms in England when he lays out his vision for the future on Monday.
Johnson is expected to tell MPs upon their return from Parliament’s February recess that the vaccine programme, testing and new treatments can be relied upon to keep the public safe.
He will also give more details on how Britain will guard against future coronavirus variants through ongoing surveillance, amid reports that the government wants to end free testing and scale back public health studies.
Currently people in England are legally required to self-isolate for at least five days if instructed to by public health officials, and are advised to isolate even without a specific order if they have COVID-19 symptoms or test positive.
Speaking ahead of outlining his plan, the Prime Minister said: “Covid will not suddenly disappear, and we need to learn to live with this virus and continue to protect ourselves without restricting our freedoms.
“We’ve built up strong protections against this virus over the past two years through the vaccine rollouts, tests, new treatments, and the best scientific understanding of what this virus can do.
“Thanks to our successful vaccination programme and the sheer magnitude of people who have come forward to be jabbed, we are now in a position to set out our plan for living with Covid this week.”
By the end of the week, self-isolation regulations will be scrapped for those who test positive and their close contacts, officials said.
Local authorities will be required to manage outbreaks with pre-existing public health powers, as they would with other diseases.
Downing Street said pharmaceutical interventions will “continue to be our first line of defence”, with the vaccine programme remaining “open to anyone who has not yet come forward”.
With 85% of the UK’s population double-vaccinated, and 38 million booster jabs administered, No 10 said it had concluded “Government intervention in people’s lives can now finally end”.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s future blueprint for dealing with Covid, Labour said people should not be asked to pay for coronavirus tests.
The comments come after armed forces minister James Heappey suggested on Thursday that Mr Johnson was likely to announce an end to free lateral flow tests as he called on the public to “worry less about the need to have tested ourselves”.
Removing the COVID-19 self-isolation legal requirements and replacing them with voluntary guidance would bring the disease in line with how Britain treats most other infections.
Some 85% of Britain’s population aged 12 or over have had at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and two thirds of the population – including the vast majority of those most at risk – have had three.
Britain’s death toll of more than 160,000 fatalities within 28 days of infection is the second-highest in Europe after Russia’s. Relative to the size of Britain’s population, it is 6% higher than the average for the European Union.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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