Self-isolation for Covid sufferers to end by next spring
SELF-ISOLATION for people who test positive for Covid will be scrapped by next spring, leaked documents suggest.
The Government is winding up its response to coronavirus as part of an exit strategy dubbed “Operation Rampdown” according to official papers seen by The Mail on Sunday.
In 160 pages of papers, Whitehall officials state the virus will become endemic, and the legal requirement for those who test positive for Covid to selfisolate for 10 days will not be renewed when legal powers expire in March.
It would mean that NHS Test and Trace will also be scrapped next year following huge criticism of the multibillion-pound scheme which failed to prevent lockdown.
The fight against Covid is now expected to move away from a countrywide response towards tackling local outbreaks, and prioritising vulnerable communities, such as people living in care homes.
Payments for those quarantining will also be scrapped, as will free lateral flow and PCR tests, the documents suggest.
Officials have also been told they must consider the wider fallout of imposing future restrictions rather than only considering the immediate health impacts.
One document said: “We will no longer be prioritising the previous objectives of breaking chains of transmission at all costs.”
Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said the papers were an example of “sanity returning to policy”.
The strategy is part of a six-week review by the UK Health Security Agency to consider how life will look by next spring, and makes it clear the Government is looking at how to dial down its response and take its approach to coronavirus off an emergency footing.
Many experts are now predicting there will be no winter resurgence this year unless a dangerous new variant emerges. Modelling by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predicted large falls in November and low case numbers by Christmas.
Yesterday, the Government reported 36,517 new cases in Britain, a fall of nearly 30 per cent since the last peak on October 21. Deaths are also down nearly 7 per cent in the past week and hospital admissions by 13 per cent.
However despite the positive figures, Independent Sage is continuing to call for “Plan B” to be implemented “to save Christmas” and warns that the NHS is not sustainable under current pressures.
The Royal College of Nursing has also called for the mandatory wearing of face masks to be reimposed.
The Government is relying on the booster programme to protect the most vulnerable over the winter period, with 12 million people given their third jab by yesterday. “Every jab builds our wall of defence across the country ahead of Christmas,” said the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid.