Boris Johnson is set to unveil his “Living with Covid” strategy on Monday, which is expected to include scrapping the legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive for coronavirus.
The prime minister will meet first with Cabinet colleagues, then make an afternoon announcement to the Commons before hosting a press conference on Monday evening.
Trailing the end of restrictions in England as the Omicron wave continued to wane, Mr Johnson said: “Today will mark a moment of pride after one of the most difficult periods in our country’s history as we begin to learn to live with Covid.
“It would not be possible without the efforts of so many – the NHS who delivered the life-saving vaccine rollout at phenomenal speed, our world-leading scientists and experts, and the general public for their commitment to protecting themselves and their loved ones.
“The pandemic is not over but thanks to the incredible vaccine rollout we are now one step closer towards a return to normality and finally giving people back their freedoms while continuing to protect ourselves and others.”
His optimism was arguably undermined by the news on Sunday that the Queen, 95, had tested positive for Covid.
Buckingham Palace said she is experiencing only mild symptoms and she appeared well enough to sign a card of congratulations to Britain’s gold medal-winning curling team at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Despite that cautionary reminder of the threat still posed by the virus two years into the pandemic, Mr Johnson has been emboldened to act by the success of the vaccine rollout and by falling rates of infection, hospitalisation and death after the latest variant drove a spike in cases over the New Year.
His biggest announcement on Monday is expected to be the end of self-isolation requirements, meaning that people will be free to go about their business unimpeded even after testing positive and, potentially, mingle with other members of the public in crowded spaces while ill and contagious.
They will still be officially advised against doing so or going to work until they have tested negative again but, from Thursday, that will become a matter of personal choice.
Other measures expected to be rolled back include the availability of free lateral flow tests (LFTs), which Mr Johnson complained was “unsustainable” at its current cost £2bn a month during an interview with the BBC’s new Sunday Morning show with Sophie Raworth, a rationale that could also see an end to mass testing in schools.
Face masks are likely to be no longer compulsory except on public transport in London, although individual businesses will still be able to request they be worn by customers and clients on their premises at their own discretion.
The elderly and vulnerable could be offered a fourth vaccine booster jab six months on from receiving their third, while the power to impose lockdowns will no longer be wielded at a national level, with shutdowns likely to be left up to local authorities working in tandem with public health bodies, as is the case with other viruses.
Hospital visits could still be restricted, however, with discretion left up to individual healthcare trusts and unvaccinated travellers will still be required to take a Covid test before boarding flights and pay for a PCR test on or before day two of their arrival in the UK.
Completing a passenger locator form (PLF) is also likely to remain mandatory for both the jabbed and unjabbed arriving in the UK for now, although transport secretary Grant Shapps is expected to unveil revised rules for travel later this month.
While Mr Johnson hopes the public mood will be lifted by his announcements, there is plenty of opposition to these latest moves among medical professionals.
A sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned that transmission could increase by between 25 per cent and 80 per cent of people “return to pre-pandemic behaviours” without any mitigations in place.
Specific policy adjustments have also been criticised, with Matthew Taylor, chief executive of NHS Confederation, telling Sky News that it is “too early” to end mandatory testing after a survey by his organisation found that three quarters of NHS leaders in England were opposed to the curtailing of legal isolation requirements.
Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation’s special envoy on Covid-19, likewise told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the steps were “unwise” and Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association, said Mr Johnson’s actions are “premature” and “not based on current evidence”.
On cutting the provision of free LFTs, University of Leicester clinical virologist Dr Julian Tang warned “if testing is not free, people won’t do it,” which would make it harder to track the progress of Covid in the event that new variants should emerge.
The prime minister’s political opponents, notably Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, have also raised concerns, the latter taking a leaf out of Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam’s book when he told the BBC that ending free testing was like “being one up with 10 minutes left to play and subbing your best defender”.
“We are not out of the woods yet on Covid,” Mr Streeting cautioned.
His fellow shadow minister, Stephen Doughty, told Sky News on Monday morning: “This is the wrong time to scrap free tests and it’s the wrong time to be rolling back on the restrictions on isolation.
“The government is trying to get headlines this morning but we need to see the science.
“There’s a lot of people up and down the country who rely on free tests to make sure they can go to work, that they’re not taking a risk of infecting loved ones – particularly those who have immunocompromised conditions and so on.”
For all the accusations of recklessness, Mr Johnson did tell Ms Raworth on Sunday that he could not rule out the reimposition of restrictions in future in the event that a dangerous new variant of Covid does emerge, commenting: “You’ve got to be humble in the face of nature.”
