Manama, January 13 (BNA) British officials said, on Thursday, that the period of self-isolation for people in England who tested positive for the Covid-19 virus will be reduced from next week to five full days, instead of seven.
Health Minister Sajid Javid also said early signs are that the country’s coronavirus recovery rate is starting to slow, the Associated Press reports.
Javid told Parliament that official data indicated that two-thirds of people were no longer contagious by the end of the fifth day after testing positive for the virus.
He said that, starting from Monday, the infected can leave the isolation from the beginning of the sixth day, after conducting two negative examinations.
Currently, those infected can be released from self-isolation after seven days if they test negative on the sixth and seventh days.
Javid urged people to continue self-testing for the virus, so we can “restore freedoms to this country while keeping everyone safe.”
The UK saw record numbers of daily confirmed infections over Christmas and New Year’s Eve, exceeding 200,000 cases on some days as the most transmissible omicron variant spread rapidly.
Industries from retail to education, and infrastructure such as public transportation and postal services, have been severely disrupted because dozens of workers have been forced to isolate and cannot go to work.
Javid told lawmakers that although hospitals “will remain under significant pressure” over the coming weeks – with nearly 17,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in England – the current wave of the pandemic has not seen an increase in intensive care patients.
He added that official data showed “encouraging signs” of a decline in cases in London and eastern England, but infections were increasing elsewhere in the country.
Javid stressed that vaccines, testing and antiviral treatments remain the best way to “protect our health and freedoms as we learn to live with COVID.”
He added that the UK had entered its third year of dealing with the pandemic, “but this virus will not go away”.
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