LIVING WITH COVID
This week the Government removed the remaining legal restrictions placed upon the population in 2020 to save lives, protect the NHS’s ability to continue to treat people and minimise the impacts of covid.
You can read the full plan HERE and I would encourage you to do so, as I believe it contains the answers to the questions I am receiving, although I hope to cover off most of them below. The plan also provides extensive advice and guidance on how you can manage and mitigate your own risk to covid and other similar respiratory illnesses.
Restrictions pose a heavy toll on our economy and society – so it is right that we learn to live with this virus and continue protecting ourselves, without restricting our freedoms. That is why we have announced our plan to live with Covid-19 – including ending all remaining domestic Covid-19 restrictions across England on Thursday, ending the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test result from 1 April, and offering all adults aged over 75, all residents in adult care homes, and all over 12s who are immunosuppressed an additional booster jab – while still encouraging safe behaviour.
Thanks to our world-leading vaccine rollout, we are now able to bring our response to Covid-19 more in line with other viruses and allow people to get back to normal while remaining protected.
Why is the Government removing the remaining legal requirements?
The Government has been clear from the outset of the pandemic that Government infringements on the liberty of citizens has been necessary to protect the nation, but that those curbs would cease the moment they were no longer necessary.
The situation now is thankfully very different to March 2020. More than 98% of the population has immunity to covid, largely thanks to the success of our vaccine programme, and over 95% of the over 60s have receive their booster dose.
The present Omicron strain of covid has become dominant and is thankfully much milder than previous variants. That is not to say it will feel “mild” for everyone who catches it, but it is far less likely to cause hospitalisation and even less likely to cause death. In fact, hospitalisations and deaths from covid continue to fall despite the restrictions having been lifted.
We can roll back the legislation because we are now in a very different position to when we first started our fight against covid.
Back then, we knew very little about the virus, and we could not call upon a vaccine to protect ourselves. Now, we are able to treat covid the way we treat other viruses, like flu, relying not on laws, but on people’s personal responsibility and common sense.
How can I protect myself and others from covid?
The best thing you can do is to get vaccinated if you have not already done so. If you are unwell, you should stay home until you feel better. Government guidance remains that you should try to ventilate spaces where lots of people are gathered indoors and consider wearing a face covering in such situations if around those you do not normally meet, such as busy public transport.
The updated public health advice is HERE.
Why will lateral flow tests no longer be free from 1 April?
Throughout the pandemic, testing those who have no symptoms has been a useful tool in preventing the spread of covid, and during the autumn and winter of 2021, they were especially useful in doing so while the vital booster programme was rolled out. To date, the UK has carried out over 470million covid tests – more than any other country.
However, providing free tests to those who have no symptoms of illness is incredibly expensive and cost £2.8 billion in December 2021 alone and continues to cost an average of £2billion per month. Now that covid is, for the vast majority of people, a mild and manageable disease, it is no longer a responsible use of taxpayer’s money. As prevalence and severity of covid continues to fall, the ability of asymptomatic testing to reduce infection spread is much reduced, and the huge cost is no longer justifiable.
From 1 April limited symptomatic testing will remain available for a small number of at-risk groups - the Government will set out further details on which groups will be eligible. Free symptomatic testing will remain available to social care staff. Asymptomatic testing will continue for NHS staff and patients.
How will we trace new variants?
The UK has been a global leader in sequencing and monitoring, at times uploading the highest number of sequences of any country on the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data platform.
The Government will continue to monitor cases, in hospital settings in particular, including using genomic sequencing, which will allow some insights into the evolution of the virus. UKHSA will maintain scaled down critical surveillance capabilities including the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey population level survey, genomic sequencing and additional data.
How will we protect those more vulnerable to covid?
The UK has secured more antivirals and therapeutics per head than any other country in Europe. People at highest risk of developing severe COVID-19 can now access those antivirals should they test positive for COVID-19. UKHSA has sent priority PCR tests to around 1.3 million people to support rapid turnaround of results so they can access the treatments as soon as possible after symptoms begin. In England, around 14,000 people with weakened immune systems have already been treated with the new antivirals, Lagevrio (molnupiravir) and Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir), and the new monoclonal antibody treatment, Xevudy (sotrovimab).
Anyone with a respiratory illness – be it covid, a cold or the flu – should act responsibly and protect those who are clinically vulnerable by isolating if unwell, avoiding the clinically extremely vulnerable if they can whilst ill, and wearing a face covering indoors in public areas to limit the transmission of their illness.
Will people isolate if they are not legally mandated to?
The British people have shown they are able to amend their own behaviour and manage their personal risk without government mandating them to. For example, when cases started to rise between lockdowns, household mixing dropped significantly despite it being legal as people amended their behaviour to match the risk. Scotland has never legally mandated self-isolation for positive cases, yet has had roughly the same, if not higher, self-isolation rates for those testing positive than England.
The vast majority of people will continue to do the right thing and stay at home if they have covid. The guidance continues to be to do so for at least five days.
What about schools? Should I send my child to school if they have symptoms of covid?
If your child is unwell/displays symptoms of covid they should remain at home.
The full guidance for education and early years settings is HERE.