Do you feel ready for the last remaining Covid restrictions to end?
Boris Johnson has signalled an early end to Covid self-isolation, indicating that laws requiring people in England with Covid-19 to self-isolate could be lifted within weeks.
With ever-increasing immunity in the population and the benefit of vaccines, the risk from the virus is lessening all the time.
However, questions are being asked by some if this proposed end to Covid rules is too early, as infection levels remain high.
The Prime Minister said he will present his plan for “living with Covid” when Parliament returns from a short recess on February 21. He also indicated that, as long as the data remains positive, the legal duty to self-isolate will be lifted a month earlier than planned.
But, the PM’s official spokesman clarified in a briefing with journalists that Downing Street would not recommend people go to work if they test positive for Covid.
“What we would simply be doing is removing the domestic regulations which relate to isolation,” he said.
“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.”
The PM’s spokesman said the ending of legal restrictions in England would be an “important step for this country”, and it “shows that the hard work of the British people is paying off”.
“It is a boon both for the public – we are able to restore freedoms – but also to our hard-hit businesses, particularly hospitality, enabling our economy to grow further,” he said.
Covid-19 cases in England currently average just under 64,000 a day, the lowest since mid-December, though this only includes people who have reported a positive test result and does not reflect the prevalence of the virus across the whole population.
Professor Peter Openshaw, who advises the Government on Covid through the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said he would be “very reluctant” to suggest this was the end of Covid, adding it was “still a very nasty virus”.
“It would be wholly wrong to say that the pandemic is in any way over. We don’t know what’s around the corner, there could be another variant, perhaps based on Delta or something else with higher pathogenicity, which could come back to bite us anytime, and I’m pretty sure that next winter we’re going to see it back.”
He added: “I think we’re all really looking forward to being able to get back to some sort of normality and we know Omicron is generally fairly mild in people who have immunity and most adults have immunity now, either because we’ve been vaccinated or because we’ve been infected or both.
“So, we’re going in the right direction, but this doesn’t seem very cautious.”
Do you believe the Prime Minister is right to lift the Covid self-isolation rules earlier than planned? Do you think the general public would be sensible enough to stay at home if they were unwell, without being forced? Are you happy that the country will be returning to pre-pandemic normality? Perhaps you disagree with this and would prefer the rules to stay the same.
