Boris Johnson has announced plans to end the legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive Covid-19 test as he moves to scrap the last remaining coronavirus restrictions in England.
The UK prime minister, attempting to raise Conservative morale after weeks of Tory divisions, won cheers from his MPs as he suggested the worst of the Covid crisis was coming to an end.
“It is my expectation that we’ll be able to end the last domestic restrictions, including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive, a full month early,” Johnson said at prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons.
The prime minister said he expected to set out a “living with Covid” plan when MPs returned from a break on February 21. The remaining legal restrictions were not due to expire until March 24.
Johnson set out his thinking last month when he said: “There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether — just as we don’t place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.
“As Covid becomes endemic we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.”
Wednesday’s announcement came as new data from the Office for National Statistics showed that Covid infection rates were rising across the UK. Some 3.3mn people were infected with the virus in the week ending February 5, up from nearly 3.1mn infections the week before. In England, one in 19 people had coronavirus in the latest week, compared with one in 20 a week earlier.
Earlier this month, Denmark became the first European country to drop all Covid restrictions, including the legal requirement to self-isolate, despite record infection rates due to the Omicron coronavirus variant.
However, the Danish government still advises people who test positive after showing symptoms to self-isolate for at least four days.
In South Africa, where Omicron first emerged, people without symptoms have not had to self-isolate after testing positive since early February.
The prime minister’s spokesman stressed on Wednesday that the change was not a recommendation that people should go to work if they have coronavirus, adding that “guidance” on appropriate behaviour would remain in place.
“What we would simply be doing is removing the domestic regulations which relate to isolation,” he said. “But obviously in the same way that someone with flu, we wouldn’t recommend they go to work, we would never recommend anyone goes to work when they have an infectious disease.”
He added: “We’ve talked about how we will need to manage living with coronavirus as we emerge from this pandemic. We are entering into that phase of endemicity . . . and it’s only right that we adjust according.”
Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said the planned rule change in England was “pragmatic” as self-isolation rules were “essentially self-policed”.
“No longer mandating isolation periods isn’t going to make a big difference,” said Spector. “The people who are currently respecting the rules will probably carry on respecting those rules even if they’re not legally enforced.”
But he stressed the need to continue with “strong public health messaging”, adding that the government “must not pretend it’s over”.
However, Professor Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Sage group of science advisers, called the move “depressing”, adding that it would make going to work or going out in public “riskier” and would adversely affect people in jobs “where it’s not easy to work from home and there is pressure to go in”.
“The implication is that [the government] expects everyone to get infected, more than once, for a disease considerably more infectious than flu and considerably more dangerous than a cold,” she added.