People who believe they have caught Covid should act as if they have the flu and “just behave sensibly”, Sajid Javid said on Monday.
The Health Secretary said he personally would not go to work if he tested positive and would remain off work for “about four or five days”.
About 300,000 people a day are describing symptoms of Covid and experts believe there could be as many as three million active cases in the UK, due to the more infectious BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron that is prevalent.
Free testing is due to be scrapped on April 1 and the most common symptoms are akin to a cold, with more than 80 per cent of respondents to the ZOE tracker app reporting a runny nose.
In addition, more than two-thirds told ZOE that their symptoms included headache, fatigue, sore throat and sneezing.
Mr Javid, who was opposed to the Government decision to restrict free tests to vulnerable settings such as hospitals and care homes to save cash, told Times Radio: “Post April 1, if people have Covid symptoms, they should just behave sensibly – like you would expect someone to behave if they had flu symptoms in the past, to socialise a bit less, stay indoors and wait until you feel better.”
But he declined to say they should pay for a test. “I think that will be a decision for that individual,” he said.
High street retailers are selling lateral flow tests from around £2 to £4 each.
Speaking later on BBC Breakfast, Mr Javid added: “If I tested positive, I wouldn’t go into work.
“As we are learning to live with Covid, we are relying much more on people’s own personal responsibility, their own common sense.
“People should take an approach that is essentially a common sense approach. If you are not feeling well, if you have got the symptoms of Covid, then it is not a good idea to mix with other people.”
More than 11,500 inpatients in hospital in England have tested positive for Covid but Mr Javid said “60 per cent are not there because of Covid” but just happen to be carrying the virus without it making them seriously ill.
In London, more than 56,000 people have tested positive in the last week and 1,930 people with Covid are in hospital.
Mr Javid said that despite the increase in cases they were “still well below their peak”. He said a rise in infections had been expected as a result of removing restrictions, with the BA.2 sub-variant also to blame.
“There is no particular cause for concern at this point,” he said.
A fourth dose is being rolled out today for five million people – those aged over 75, living in an elderly people’s care home or who are immunosuppressed.
It is likely that a fourth dose will be offered to all people aged 50 and older in the Autumn but a final decision has not been made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The Health Secretary dismissed suggestions that the UK would shortly be hit by a wave of infections currently being seen in China and Hong Kong.
Mr Javid said the problem there had been caused by the failure of a “zero Covid” policy unable to keep out the Omicron variant and lower vaccination rates than the UK, with about two-thirds of Hong Kongers aged 80 or older completely unvaccinated.
