People travelling to the UK will now have to self-isolate for 5 full days
Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced the move in a message to MPs, saying the government had reviewed the policy to ensure it boosted “economic activity” while minimizing “the risk of infectious patients exiting isolation.”
London
To help increase economic activity, the UK government announced on Thursday that the minimum self-isolation period for persons with Covid-19 in England will be reduced from seven to five days.
After negative lateral flow tests on days five and six, patients will be free to leave isolation starting Monday.
The decision was hailed by ministers as a method to relieve personnel shortages in several areas, notably the NHS.
Back in December, the self-isolation time was reduced from ten to seven days after negative tests on days six and seven.
It comes after the government in England reduced the quarantine period from ten to seven days in December, in an attempt to alleviate the effects of an extraordinary wave of new cases caused by the Omicron variety.
Urgent actions are needed
“These two tests are crucial to these balanced and proportionate measures, and I’d encourage everyone to use the capacity we’ve built up in tests to restore the country’s liberties while keeping everyone secure,” he said.
The large wave of Omicron cases that began last month has eased slightly in recent days in Britain, which was one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe by the pandemic, with over 150,000 deaths.
However, millions of individuals have been compelled to self-isolate as a result of weeks of record infections, putting a strain on staff levels in critical areas like healthcare and education.
The administration expects that decreasing the necessary isolation period, combined with an earlier amendment allowing close contact, will help alleviate staffing shortages.
The virus is challenging
The virus was “still with us and there are going to be challenging weeks ahead,” the health minister said in the House of Commons, but there were positive signals in the data that cases were declining in London and the east of England – but rising in other parts of the country.
Mr Javid also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to requiring mandatory vaccinations for healthcare professionals, stating that uptake has been “quite promising” since the mandates were announced.
It comes as official data released last month revealed that the UK’s economic recovery from the effects of the epidemic slowed more sharply than previously thought in the third quarter of 2021, even before Omicron arrived.
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