On Monday, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, announced that he would end all COVID remaining restrictions in England, including compulsory self-isolation for individuals with COVID-19 and free testing.
According to the sources, PM has also stated that the existing Covid restrictions will be abolished on Thursday, and the free COVID-19 testing will end in April. In addition, he said the provision of free testing would be targeted to the most vulnerable individuals from April 1.
Johnson’s “living with COVID-19” plan has sparked concerns that it is too early and may expose the country to new viral strains, but the administration claims it has provided more testing as compared to other countries and now needs to save expenses.
Furthermore, he said that the provision for free tests could not persist at their current rate due to the cost of £2bn a month.
The amendments will be subject to Parliament’s approval.
However, the country has also made changes to its current rules. People can now only order a box every three days rather than every 24 hours in an effort to prevent individuals from stockpiling free lateral flow tests before the April 1 deadline.
As per the figures, the percentage of people fully vaccinated in the UK is approximately 72.7%, accounting for 4.89Cr people. Until now, about 13.9Cr doses have been given to the people in the entire UK.
Since the pandemic, Britain has recorded a total of 18,654,572 cases of Coronavirus with 16,817,120 recoveries and 160,610 deaths.
From Thursday onwards :
- Individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 will no longer be required to self-isolate.
- But they will be recommended to stay at home and avoid contact with other individuals for at least 5 days.
- Contact tracing will be ended, so fully-vaccinated close contacts and those below the age of 18 will no longer be required to test daily for 7 consecutive days.
- The £500 self-isolation support payment for people on low incomes who test positive for COVID-19 will no longer exist.
- Coronavirus provisions for expanded statutory sick pay will apply for a further month.
From April 1 onwards :
- Free mass symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public will be scraped, and the provision of free testing will be targeted to the most vulnerable persons.
- People with COVID-19 symptoms will be asked to take their own responsibility when deciding whether to stay at home – until then, and they are still recommended to do so.
- The existing government guidance on Covid-19 passports will be ended, and it will no longer advise venues to use the NHS Covid pass.
