Covid: Self-isolation to be scrapped for double-jabbed and children in England

Fully vaccinated people in England will not have to self-isolate if a close contact tests positive for Covid from 16 August, the health secretary says.

Sajid Javid told MPs the same policy would also apply to anyone under the age of 18 from that date.

The government would give more details this week on self-isolation rules for international travel, he added.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced the end of "bubbles" in schools from 19 July.

This system has led to large numbers of pupils being sent home if a single child has a positive test.

Covid-related pupil absence in England has hit a new high since all students returned to school in March - with 640,000 pupils in England not in school due to Covid last week.

On Monday, the prime minister confirmed he intended to scrap most of the remaining restrictions in England on 19 July, including the laws on mask wearing and rules on social distancing.

A further 28,773 cases were reported across the UK on Tuesday, and there were another 37 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

In a statement to the House of Commons, the health secretary said: "From 16 August when even more people will have the protection of both doses, and when modelling suggests the risks from the virus will be even lower, anyone who is a close contact of a positive case will no longer have to self-isolate if they have been fully vaccinated.

"If someone gets their second dose just before or just after 16 August, they'll need to wait two weeks, after which their second jab can take effect and give them these new freedoms."

As under-18s are not routinely jabbed, he said a similar exemption from self-isolation rules would be extended to them.

Mr Javid said adults who had been in close contact with a positive case would be "advised" to get a PCR test as soon as possible to make sure they had not been infected, while for children it would be dependent on their age.

People identified as close contacts of a confirmed Covid case are currently required to self-isolate for up to 10 full days when contacted by NHS Test and Trace.

He added that "of course" anyone that tested positive would have to self-isolate whether they have had the jab or not.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the date for the changes was chosen to allow more people to become double jabbed and with rising case numbers "it makes sense" to keep protective measures in place until mid-August.

It said if fully-vaccinated users of the NHS Covid-19 app are notified that a contact has tested positive after 16 August, they will be able to tell it they have had both jabs.

Industry group UK Hospitality said Mr Javid's announcement "doesn't go far enough, quickly enough".

Chief executive Kate Nicholls said it "fails to recognise the carnage the current system" is causing with pub and restaurant staff who "have been told to isolate despite not having shared shifts with colleagues who tested positive".

The NHS Confederation, representing hospital leaders, said the move "may act as an incentive for people to have both jabs, but we must also remember that no vaccine is 100% effective... it's still vital that people continue to get tested, and isolate if they have Covid".

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will update MPs this week on international travel and removing "the need for fully-vaccinated arrivals to isolate when they return from an amber list country", Mr Javid said.

Earlier, the health secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he would expect cases numbers by 19 July to be "at least double" what they were now "so around 50,000 new cases a day".

"As we ease and go into the summer we expect them to rise significantly and they could go as high as 100,000 case numbers," he said.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Javid had justified allowing infections to climb by pointing to the UK "building a protective wall" of vaccines.

However, Mr Ashworth said the "wall is only part built", and data from Israel suggested that the infectious Delta variant could be transmitted through fully vaccinated people.

He said he "understood the rationale" for Mr Javid's announcement but believed that the "biggest barrier to an effective isolation policy" was a "lack of financial incentive to stay at home".

He also called for a U-turn on the decision to make mask-wearing voluntary, saying: "Yes, let's have freedom but not a high-risk free-for-all - keep masks for now, fix sick pay, and let's unlock in a safe and sustainable way."

The Scottish government has said it may continue to require masks in certain settings even after 9 August, when it is hoped the final curbs will end.

Ahead of a review on 15 July in Wales, ministers said people would need to learn to live with Covid.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the prime minister's approach to ending coronavirus restrictions in England was reckless.

She said Northern Ireland, which is due to review its rules on 8 July, would make its own decisions but would "not be following that model".

Ireland's deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar called England's plan "too risky" and warned if things went wrong there would be a "spillover effect" into neighbouring countries.

Asked about contingency planning for potential vaccine-resistant variants, Mr Javid told MPs: "Reasonable experts will have different views on this... we are making some proportionate and balanced changes but border controls are staying in place. We are keeping the test, track and isolate policy in place."

The lifting of the remaining restrictions and now the ending of quarantining for the close contacts of people who are infected are bold moves.

No other country in the world has tried this in the face of a rapidly increasing level of Covid infection driven by a more infectious variant.

So, of course, it comes with risks. While the link between infections and serious illness has been weakened, it has not been broken altogether.

If cases reach 100,000 a day, that could translate to close to 2,000 hospital admissions a day - twice what the NHS would see for all types of respiratory illness in the depths of winter.

Soon afterwards, you would expect so see Covid deaths top 100 a day. And what if infection rates rise even further? Should we compare this to flu? In a bad winter those deaths can top 20,000.

These are difficult questions to answer. The hope of government scientists is that the wall of immunity built up by the vaccination programme and natural infection will halt the rise in rates before we have to.

Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College - whose modelling helped lead to the first nationwide restrictions - said as restrictions eased there was the potential for the UK to have a very large numbers of cases - 150,000 to 200,000 a day - which could "still cause some pressure to the health system".

However he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that although it was a "slight gamble" he thought it was "justifiable", adding "I'm reasonably optimistic."

He said the vaccines would keep deaths far lower than in previous waves. "The ratio which we saw in the past between case numbers and deaths has been reduced by more like eight to 10-fold."

In the worst-case scenario there "may need to be a course correction later", he added.

Businesses have given mixed reactions to the plans to ease rules in England from 19 July.

Melvin Benn, chief executive of Festival Republic, which runs the Reading and Leeds festivals, said the government had "got this right", adding that "the country wants to reopen, we are tired of this, we want to reopen".

He also said he was not inclined to encourage festival guests to wear masks - even indoors.

However, Jacinta Rowsell, manager of the Westfield shopping centre in London, said staff would still "encourage guests" to wear masks as they wanted people visiting to feel safe.