“Provided the current encouraging trends in the data
continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic
restrictions –- including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test
positive -– a full month early,” Johnson told Parliament.
People who test positive now have to isolate for five full
days. That rule is to expire on March 24.
Johnson added he plans to present his plan for living with
the virus when Parliament returns from a short break on Feb. 21.
Johnson’s Conservative government dropped most remaining
COVID-19 restrictions last month. Face masks are no longer mandatory anywhere
in England, except on London’s public transport network. Virus passports for
gaining entry to nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the
official advice to work from home.
Officials have said the government plans to switch from
legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus more like the
flu as it becomes endemic in the country.
The U.K. has seen a drop in both new infections and COVID-19
patients admitted to hospitals since early January, when the highly
transmissible omicron variant drove daily caseloads to more than 200,000 a day.
Current infections average at around 64,000 daily — the
lowest recorded since mid-December — with 314 deaths reported on Tuesday.
Officials have credited the government’s booster jab program
with preventing the surge of omicron cases from causing serious stress to U.K.
hospitals. In Britain, 65.4% of those 12 and over have had a booster vaccine,
and 84.5% have been fully vaccinated.
Beginning Friday, the rules for people travelling to the
U.K. will also be relaxed. Fully vaccinated travelers will no longer need to
take any coronavirus tests before or after arrival, and those who are not fully
jabbed won’t have to isolate, although they need to take tests.
Some scientists greeted Wednesday’s news with caution. Simon
Clarke, a professor in microbiology at the University of Reading, said ending
the self-isolation rule will be “an experiment which will either be shown to be
very brave or very stupid.”
“Omicron may be on the wane in Europe but other parts of the
world are still in the full flush of a surge in infections. In such
circumstances, as we have seen before, the virus is in the best possible
position to mutate again, and there is absolutely no certainty that any new
variant would be less dangerous,” he said.
Britain joins other European countries also easing COVID-19
restrictions as infection rates drop. The Czech Republic said Wednesday people
no longer have to show a vaccination certificate to enter bars, restaurants and
cafes, while Sweden is halting widespread testing, citing unjustifiable costs
and relevance.
Britain still has the second-highest virus death toll in
Europe after Russia, with over 159,000 dead in total. -AP
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