Covid will be with us “perhaps forever”, Sajid Javid said today as he laid out plans to axe all restrictions from the spring and summer.
The Health Secretary defended comparing the virus to flu despite over 150,000 UK deaths, saying it would become endemic in future thanks to vaccination and better treatment.
He said Brits would “probably” need annual vaccinations against Covid like against flu.
But he insisted he plans to axe mandatory isolation for infected people from March 24 - with a final decision on the date “in the next few weeks”.
It comes as England’s Plan B work-from-home guidance - along with face masks in school classrooms - have both been axed as of today.
From next Thursday England will also axe mandatory Covid passes for nightclubs, mandatory face masks in shops and on public transport, and face masks in communal areas of schools.
The government has also vowed to scrap free lateral flow tests in future, with a leaked document suggesting this will happen from the end of June.
But Mr Javid also said he would choose to wear a mask in a supermarket or on the London Underground, with guidance continuing to recommend them in enclosed spaces.
And one exception is Mr Javid still plans to press ahead with plans to force frontline NHS staff to be vaccinated as a “condition of deployment” from April 1.
Asked by Sky News if he meant to compare Covid to flu, Mr Javid replied: “Yes”.
He said: “If at the start of covid when we had no vaccines, we had no testing infrastructure, we had no treatments, people were comparing it to flu - that would’ve been wrong.”
But he added: “We need to learn to live with it. Sadly people die of flu as well. In a bad flu year, you can sadly lose about 20,000 lives.
“But we don’t shut down our entire country and put in place lots of restrictions to deal with it. We need to continue with our lives with sensible, appropriate and proportionate measures.
“The one thing we’ve learned about flu, because it’s been around for far longer, is we have annual vaccinations, for older people in particular, for children as well. We have good advice.
“We may well have some kind of annual vaccination. I think that’s where we’ll probably end up, but it’s really difficult for anyone to say exactly in the longer term where we’ll be.
He added: “Covid is not going away. It’s going to be with us for many many years, perhaps forever, and we have to learn to live with it.”
Yesterday Boris Johnson confirmed to MPs that the remaining Plan B rules in England would be allowed to expire on January 26 as the peak of the Omicron wave appeared to be over.
The under-fire Prime Minister suggested the country was shifting towards living with Covid - like flu - as he battled to save his premiership.
The PM told MPs: "There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don't place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.
"As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others."
Mr Johnson also told MPs the Government now intended to set out its "long-term strategy for living with Covid-19 ", adding: "Explaining how we hope and intend to protect our liberty and avoid restrictions in future by relying instead on medical advances, especially the vaccines which have already saved so many lives.
"But to make that possible we must all remain cautious during these last weeks of winter. There are still over 16,000 people in hospital in England alone.
"The pandemic is not over."
