By Tony O’ Reiley
The British government may need to explain its plans to abandon COVID self-isolation by the end of February .
Boris Johnson has relaxed covid restrictions for nearly a month now, but there are concerns that his plans to abandon self isolation for those who test positive for Covid-19 could pose a risk to society by further spreading the virus.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson announced his plans to remove the legal requirement to isolate by the end of this month. This could mean that individuals who test positive for Covid-19 will still be allowed to mix with the public as usual, without any legal restrictions preventing them from doing so.
Some experts have warned that such a law will leave vulnerable people facing a higher risk of catching the virus from infected people who do not self isolate because of the new law.
Mr Johnson said he will present his plan for ‘living with Covid’ when Parliament returns from a short recess on February 21, with an aim of lifting the requirement to self-isolate within days of that.
The government is yet to fully explain its reasoning in potentially exposing members of the public to those who have tested positive for the virus, but one potential explanation is to encourage people back to work and not worry about the risks of not getting paid whilst off sick, as has occurred with some employees.
Another explanation may be to allow people who recover quickly from a positive covid test to be able to return to work quicker once they are negative, rather than being held back by an inflexible law that fails to take account of those who recover quickly from the virus, and force them to remain at home when they could be working. Many employers do not like the idea of paying employees who are off sick with covid because of the view that staff exploit the opportunity of testing positive to take time off work and still get paid..
Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, told Sky News: “This is crazy. It goes against all the fundamental principles of public health.