This week Boris Johnson announced his plan to 'live with Covid', with many rules changing from today.
Mandatory self-isolation is being axed from Thursday, February 23, £500 isolation payments and day one sick pay will go, and free tests will be axed from April 1 - with a 72-hour limit already in place to stop stockpiling, MirrorOnline reports.
Mr Johnson said testing, tracing and isolation cost £2bn in January alone adding: "Those who would wait for a total end to this war, would be restricting the liberties of the British people for a long time to come."
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Here are the plans due to come into force on Thursday - plus a look into the future.
Plans taking effect already or on Thursday
Testing ends in schools
England’s guidance for staff and students in schools to do regular lateral flow testing is being removed immediately.
They may remain for some settings like special schools but details were not immediately available.
Limit on how many tests you can get
As of this week you can no longer get more than one box of lateral flow tests in a 72-hour period.
It was previously a 24 hour period. This is to stop a rush of people stockpiling them before April 1, when free tests end (see below).
Self-isolation laws scrapped
Mandatory Covid self-isolation in England is scrapped - even if you have the virus - from 12.01am on Thursday 24 February.
The decision ends almost exactly two years of legally-enforced isolation for people who test positive. The legal obligation to tell your employer if you have to self-isolate will also end.
But adults and children will still be advised to stay at home if they test positive.
Between Thursday and the end of March, you'll be advised to isolate for five days as long as you test negative twice, 24 hours apart at the end of that period - as is the case now. New advice (not written yet) will apply from April 1.
Close contacts no longer have to test or isolate
The government will no longer ask vaccinated or child contacts of Covid cases in England to test themselves for seven days.
It will also remove the legal requirement for unvaccinated close contacts to self isolate, all from 12.01am on Thursday.
£500 self-isolation payment scrapped
The £500 self-isolation payment for workers with Covid will end from 12.01am on Thursday.
The Test and Trace Support Payment was introduced in September 2020 to help low-wage workers afford to self-isolate for up to 14 days. Unions and Labour are worried its removal will force people to go to work, putting their colleagues at risk of infection.
Routine contact-tracing and council powers end
Routine contact-tracing will end in England as the UK's infrastructure for dealing with Covid is wound down.
So will a set of domestic laws - the Health Protection (No3) regulations - which gave councils powers to enact closures in their area.
Changes coming into force in the future
March 24: Sick pay and ESA from day one will end
People who fall ill with Covid will no longer be eligible for immediate 'Day One' sick pay from March 24.
The law will return to how it was before Covid, where you don't get SSP for the first three days you're ill and only get it from day four.
The same will happen to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) which will return from day one to day eight. People will no longer be eligible for ESA if isolating due to Covid.
April 1: Free lateral flow tests for the general public will end
Taxpayer-funded lateral flow tests will be scrapped for almost everyone on April 1, and people will have to pay. Boots plans to charge £12 for each box of five.
Asymptomatic tests for NHS workers will be made available but not routinely, only as a "surge" effort where there's an outbreak. But they will be available for care home residents. Exact lists of those eligible are being drawn up.
April 1: Free PCR tests will end for the vast majority
The capacity to do hundreds of thousands of 'gold standard' PCR tests a day will be wound down dramatically from April 1 in England.
There will be some exceptions to this, including the over-80s, the immunosuppressed, and patients on NHS wards. Exact lists of those eligible are still being drawn up.
Scientists have raised the alarm about ending these free tests, with reports suggesting they could cost £100 each privately.
April 1: New guidance for workplaces and Covid passes wound down
The legal need for firms to consider Covid-19 in risk assessments will be removed.
The Government will replace the existing set of ‘Working Safely’ guidance with new public health guidance.
The plan adds: "From 1 April, the Government will remove the current guidance on domestic voluntary covid-status certification and will no longer recommend that certain venues use the NHS Covid Pass."
April: Hotel quarantine infrastructure shut down
The UK’s Covid travel ‘red list’ was wiped clean in December after ministers realised it was pointless trying to keep Omicron out.
But the ability to force people into £2,285-a-night hotel quarantine was kept in place - until now.
The living with Covid plan reveals it will be permanently axed next month, and travellers will instead be told to isolate at home if there is a new variant.
From Spring: A fourth dose of vaccine for over-75s and the vulnerable
People over 75 and the clinically vulnerable will be offered another Covid jab from the Spring.
A second booster jab has been recommended for over-75s by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which applies to around 7.2 million people.
It will also be offered to around 500,000 immunosuppressed people, some of whom have already had a third dose and a booster.
Anyone eligible can come forward to get another vaccine regardless of whether they have had three of four doses - as long as there has been a six month gap since their last jab.
From April: Vaccines for all children over five
All children over five will be able to get vaccinated against Covid-19 from April.
The “non-urgent offer” to the parents of nearly six million 5-11 year olds was confirmed by the Government moments after advice issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Two smaller doses of the Pfizer jab, 12 weeks apart, will be available to this age group to help control future Covid waves after Covid curbs have been lifted.
It is understood there are no plans for a major publicity drive to encourage this age group to be vaccinated and it will be left very much up to parents to decide.
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