The Government has removed nearly all Covid restrictions from England as of 24 February 2022.
Staff and students in most education and childcare settings no longer need to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing. Rules requiring self-isolation following a positive test have been removed. Adults and children who test positive are now only advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least five full days and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received two negative test results on consecutive days – this is no longer a legal requirement. Close contacts of infected people are no longer required to test for Covid daily. Routine contact tracing has now ended.
Self-isolation support payments, national funding for practical support and the medicine delivery service are now no longer available.
From 24 March, the Government will remove the COVID-19 provisions within the Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations. And from 1 April, the Government will remove the need for the NHS COVID Pass, and longer provide free universal testing for the general public in England.
DR UK Head of Policy Fazilet Hadi said: “There is still a small but significant number of Disabled people for whom Covid will remain a potential death sentence. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were hopeful that a Government that could implement such rapid protection measures for the whole of society would learn from lived experience what it is like to live with the real and present threat of death or serious illness from Covid, and would continue to maintain such protections for those who would continue to need them. The wholesale removal of restrictions without consideration of those still at risk is genuinely horrifying. Clinically Extremely Vulnerable people should still be able to shield as necessary, and as part of shielding, be able to access food and medicines safely, and be entitled to employment protection and financial support.”
To view the full Living with COVID-19 document, click here.
To view the summary of the Prime Minister’s statement, click here.
To view the Prime Minister’s statement in full, click here.