British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scrapping the last domestic COVID-19 restrictions in England, including the requirement for people with the infection to self-isolate, even as he acknowledged on Monday the potential for new and more deadly variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Johnson told lawmakers in the British House of Commons that the country was “moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility” as part of a plan for treating COVID-19 like other transmissible illnesses, such as the flu.
He said that it marked an end to “two of the darkest, grimmest years in our peacetime history.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Today is not the day we can declare victory over COVID-19, because this virus is not going away,” Johnson told a televised news conference. “But it is the day when all the efforts of the last two years finally enabled us to protect ourselves, while restoring our liberties in full.”
Johnson said that mandatory self-isolation for people with COVID-19 would end from tomorrow and the routine tracing of infected people’s contacts would stop.
People would still be advised to stay home if they are sick — but would no longer get extra financial support.
Monday’s announcement applies only to England, which is home to 56 million of the UK’s 67 million people. It leaves England with fewer restrictions than most other European countries, except for Denmark.
Many people in England who think they have COVID-19 might now never know for sure. Starting on April 1, lab-confirmed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 are to be available free only to older people and the immunocompromised.
The government is also to stop offering the public free rapid virus tests, although they would be available for purchase.
Yet the government stressed that the pandemic is not over and the virus could still spring surprises.
Johnson said that scientists are “certain there will be new variants” and it is very possible they would be worse than the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
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