The British government will announce the end of all remaining coronavirus rules and obligations on the public this week, reports state, but even as the end of that illiberty comes, the Prime Minister has managed expectations by warning the public that “we need to learn to live with this virus”.
Ending all remaining coronavirus rules, including the legal obligation to self-isolate after testing positive for coronavirus will end in England as early as this week, with an official announcement expected today, reports in government-adjacent establishment media outlets suggest.
The so-called ‘Living With Covid Plan’, due to be announced in a public address to the nation this afternoon, follows an earlier unwinding of rules in January which saw mask mandates terminated and Prime Minister Boris Johnson say he was aiming for an end of all rules by March, and the country moving towards treating coronavirus in the same way it does seasonal flu.
Today, the government is expected to lift the remaining legal restrictions, including the requirement to self-isolate when testing positive for coronavirus. This is the first time the requirement has been lifted since it was introduced at the beginning of lockdown in 2020, and consequently constitutes a major step.
For now, those who test positive have to isolate for ten days, with reductions in sentence only possible through repeated testing producing consecutive negative results.
But some details are presently unclear. Tory-friendly broadsheet Daily Telegraph reports a last-minute scuffle over the exact details of the plan between the Treasury and the Department of Health over the extent to which the free-tests-for-all programme should be rolled back. At some £2 billion a month it is a considerable liability and it could be that universal free testing may be restricted to free testing for the elderly and those working in healthcare from this week, it is claimed.
There have been criticisms outside of government, too. The official opposition party, Labour, believes keeping the testing regime going is a better course of action, calling the rollback “very premature”, and media reports have been clear in balancing the Prime Minister’s comments with those of scientists who believe a reduction in lockdown to be a mistake.
Cases of coronavirus are falling in the United Kingdom, and as state broadcaster the BBC notes: “Covid is no longer an exceptional threat. Despite the huge wave of infections, the numbers dying in recent months has been similar to what you would expect during a normal winter.”
Nevertheless, the Prime Minister struck a somewhat cautious tone when previewing the changes on his social media on Sunday. Noting that “Covid will not suddenly disappear,” Boris Johnson said “we need to learn to live with this virus” and credited Britain’s “vaccine rollouts, tests, new treatments, and the best scientific understanding of what this virus can do” for progress.
Balancing his remarks, however, Mr Johnson did say the country would seek to protect itself “without restricting our freedoms” — a marked change of attitude from the years and months previous.
Speaking on Sunday, the Prime Minister said “We have reached a stage where we think you can shift the balance away from state mandation, away from banning certain courses of action and compelling certain courses of action, in favour of encouraging personal responsibility.”
This indication of moving towards personal responsibility echoes comments Mr Johnson made earlier this year when setting out a roadmap to leaving lockdown, which at the time was said to be coming by late March. Speaking in January as he announced that the government would no longer criminalise people making judgement calls on whether to wear masks or not, Johnson said “there will soon come a time where can remove the requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don’t place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.”
While the government ending the last hard restrictions of the coronavirus age a month early may be good for the country at large, it may be even better for the government themselves ,as it could skirt a negative news cycle. As things stand before today’s announcement, the remaining coronavirus rules are set to expire by March 24th — two years and a day after lockdowns were first enforced.
It is conceivable that still being in lockdown two years after the short-term, temporary measures were introduced in 2020 could have invited a day of reflection on the government’s decisions and performance.
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