People in England who are double vaccinated but notified by the NHS Covid-19 app for coming into close contact with someone infected with the virus may soon no longer need to isolate, the health secretary has confirmed. Matt Hancock said he was looking to drop the 10-day “stay at home” order for some people as part of a wider loosening of restrictions expected to be brought in over the summer, as Boris Johnson repeated his pledge the delayed final stage of his roadmap planned for 19 July was a “terminus point”. Uniform rules have been in place for those who have and have not been inoculated, since the vaccine rollout began last December. But now all adults are able to book an appointment, the government is considering restoring some freedoms to those who have had two doses.
The Guardian revealed last week that ministers were considering letting travellers from amber list countries skip quarantine if they have had both jabs. On Monday, Hancock said that a system was being trialed to let people who were fully inoculated but identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid avoid isolating – so long as they took a lateral flow test every day. He told BBC Breakfast the approach was being piloted “to check that that will be effective, but it is something that we’re working on”. He added: “We’re not ready to be able to take that step yet, but it’s something that I want to see and we will introduce, subject to clinical advice, as soon as it’s reasonable to do so.” Hancock also dismissed the revelation from former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings that Boris Johnson had called him “totally fucking hopeless” in a text exchange last spring.
The health secretary admitted that politicians say “all sorts of things in private” when they are under pressure but insisted he and Johnson worked “very strongly together”. “Honestly, it feels like ancient history,” he said. “At times of stress, people say all sorts of things in private. What matters is how well you work together.” Johnson also repeated his promise that the lifting of all restrictions in England scheduled to happen on 21 June but pushed back to 19 July was a “terminus point”.
Speaking on a visit to a lab in Hertfordshire, the prime minister said cases of the Delta variant were still rising by 30% every week – mirrored, he said, by a similar increase in patients admitted to hospital and intensive care. “We’ve got to be cautious, but we’ll be following the data the whole time,” he said. Johnson also did not rule out a return to restrictions later in the year, when some scientists fear a new peak given the cold weather will lead to significantly more socialising taking place indoors. “You can never exclude that there will be some new disease, some new horror we simply haven’t budgeted or accounted for,” said the prime minister. “But looking at where we are, looking at the efficacy of the vaccines against the variants that we can currently see … I think it’s looking good for July 19 to be that terminus point.” He added: “We may have a rough winter for all sorts of reasons.”