England Ends All COVID Restrictions, Including Isolation Law
Newsy
England already binned most virus restrictions in January, after infection rates and hospitalizations fell following a surge in late December.
All government-mandated coronavirus restrictions in England were lifted Thursday, including the legal requirement for people who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate at home.
Officials say that those who tested positive will still be advised to stay at home for at least five days. But from Thursday they are not legally obliged to do so, and those on lower incomes will no longer get extra financial support to make up for a loss of income due to isolation. The routine tracing of infected people's contacts has also been scrapped.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday set out his Conservative government's strategy for "living with COVID" in the longer term. He said Britain is moving "from legal restrictions to personal responsibility," and that the end of all domestic legal measures marked the end of two of the darkest years in the country's peacetime history.