Voluntary isolation, no test for contacts of positive cases… UK to scrap COVID rules in England

Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, says the country will drop all COVID restrictions as they apply to England.

In January, some of the COVID restrictions were scrapped, including wearing of masks in public and mandatory COVID passes.

The prime minister told members of parliament on Monday that the legal requirement to self-isolate for those who test positive for the virus in England would be dropped on Thursday.

He said the efforts made over the past two years means the UK is now ready to move away from restrictions to a position of personal responsibility.

“COVID will not suddenly disappear so those who would wait for a total end to this war before lifting the remaining regulations would be restricting the liberties of the British people for a long time to come,” BBC quoted Johnson as saying.

“This government does not believe that this is right or necessary. Restrictions pose a heavy toll on our economy, our society, our mental well-being and on the life chances of our children, and we do not need to pay that heavy cost any longer.”

He added that as a result, routine contact tracing would end, and fully vaccinated close contacts of positive cases and those aged under 18 would no longer be legally required to test daily for seven days.

The prime minister also said after April 1, people with COVID symptoms would be encouraged to exercise personal responsibility in deciding whether to stay home.

Current government guidelines on COVID passports in England will also end.

“It’s only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now – if anything – below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions,” he said.

“It’s only because we know Omicron is less severe that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we’ve been doing is much less important and much less valuable in preventing serious illness.”

Johnson added that the free lateral flow testing will stop on April 1 and would be targeted at symptomatic older people and the most vulnerable groups.