London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Covid: Self-isolation law could be scrapped in England this month

Covid: Self-isolation law could be scrapped in England this month

All remaining Covid restrictions in England - including the legal rule to self-isolate - could end later this month, Boris Johnson has said.

Under the current rules, anyone who tests positive must self-isolate for at least five full days.

The current restrictions are due to expire on 24 March.

But Mr Johnson told MPs he expected the last domestic rules would end early as long as the positive trends in the data continued.

He said he intended to return after parliamentary recess - which runs from Thursday to 21 February - to outline the government's strategy for living with Covid.

"It is my intention to return on the first day after the half-term recess to present our strategy for living with Covid," Mr Johnson said at the start of Prime Minister's Questions.

"Provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions - including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive - a full month early."

The law will be replaced with guidance, Downing Street said - and for example people will be urged not to go to work if they have Covid.

Back in January, Mr Johnson said he expected the restrictions would end for good when they expired on 24 March - and hinted they could be abolished sooner.

In contrast, the Scottish government's remaining Covid powers are set to be extended until 24 September, as legislation making face coverings mandatory and requiring vaccine passports in some settings was due to expire at the end of the month.

Announcing the extension, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said it was important to keep options on the table, but he also stressed it did not mean curbs would definitely be in force until then.

Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the prime minister's announcement was merely "a series of throwaway remarks designed to dig him out of a political hole, with absolutely no plan to back it up", following a series of political controversies and criticism of parties held at No 10 during lockdown.

Mr Streeting told the BBC the government needed a "real plan for living well with Covid", adding Labour had published its own proposal - including provision for better sick pay and improved testing - and the prime minister was "welcome to nick it".

Downing Street also suggested there could be an update on the remaining travel rules at the same time when Mr Johnson sets out the strategy for living with Covid later this month.

Asked if the remaining travel rules would remain in place until the end of March, a spokesman said "we will obviously make a decision when we get to that stage".

Rules for travellers coming to the UK are already being relaxed on Friday 11 February.

Fully vaccinated people coming to the UK will not need to take any Covid tests, and unvaccinated travellers will not have to isolate but they will have to take tests. Everyone still needs to fill in a passenger locator form.

But people going abroad will still need to follow the rules that apply at their destination - and many UK families are choosing to cancel their half-term holidays to Spain because children over 12 must be jabbed to enter.

Daily Covid cases have been trending steadily downwards since the end of January but remain high, with 68,214 on Wednesday.

A broader survey by the Office for National Statistics suggests that more than one in 20 people in the UK had Covid in the week up to 5 February, slightly more than the previous week.

But reported deaths within 28 days of a positive test are taking longer to fall from their January peak, and are currently averaging over 250 a day, with 276 on Wednesday.

There are signs the high infection rates may be leading to more instances when someone with Covid dies of another cause, however.

In England and Wales, there are about 100 fewer deaths each day where a doctor registered Covid as the main cause of death, compared with the daily reported figure of deaths after a positive test.


Ministers had always said the rule on self-isolation could end before the planned date of 24 March.

The trends are positive - hospital cases are continuing to fall and the huge wave of infections caused by Omicron has not pushed overall deaths above what would normally be seen in winter.

But this decision has still taken most by surprise - as infection levels are still high and it's unclear what this will do to the spread of the virus.

It is, though, worth bearing in mind that not every infected person was self-isolating anyway.

This winter, the testing system has only picking up half of all infections - at the peak it was missing around an estimated 200,000 cases a day.

What's more, about one in five of those who test positive do not fully adhere to the self-isolation requirements.

The move is also likely to pave the way for the dismantling of the community testing system, with many experts believing tests will soon only be used in settings such as care homes and hospitals - or to deal with major outbreaks.

England is fast approaching the point where it treats Covid like any other respiratory illness.

The proposal to end self-isolation rules was criticised by disability charities, with Scope saying it would mean some people with high-risk conditions would feel very anxious and "could potentially be placed in situations that could prove deadly".

James Taylor from Scope said: "Nobody should be forced to gamble with their lives, and we need the government to explain to disabled people how they'll be safe when this decision is introduced."

Lorna Fillingham from Scunthorpe said her 11-year-old daughter Emily-May, who has a rare genetic disorder, had only just been offered her first dose of the vaccine.

"Our world has just got a little bit smaller again," Ms Fillingham said about the prospect of ending Covid restrictions.

Scientists said there were grounds for optimism in the data, but added the virus still presented a danger.

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading, said removing the requirement to self-isolate would be "an experiment which will either be shown to be very brave or very stupid - but nobody knows for sure what the result will be".

Prof Peter Openshaw, who advises the government on coronavirus, said he would be "very reluctant" to suggest this moment in the pandemic amounted to the end of Covid.

He told BBC Radio 4's the World at One: "We don't know what's around the corner, there could be another variant...which could come back to bite us anytime, and I'm pretty sure that next winter we're going to see it back."

The rules on self-isolation differ across the four nations of the UK.

In England, Northern Ireland and Wales anyone who develops symptoms or tests positive for Covid via a PCR or lateral flow test (LFT) must immediately self-isolate.

People are able to leave quarantine after five full days if they have two negative LFT results, 24 hours apart.

In Scotland, people must self-isolate for at least seven days - as soon as symptoms appear or they test positive - alongside the continuing requirement for face coverings and vaccine passports in some settings.


Watch the PM tell MPs that he intends to end the remaining Covid restrictions in England “a full month early”


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×