Do you have to isolate with Covid? What are the self-isolation rules in UK

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Trailing the decision in the House of Commons in January, the prime minister said that working from home orders, guidance on mask-wearing in public places and presenting NHS Covid passes to enter crowded venues were all to be scrapped as the New Year rise in infections waned without resulting in the wave of mass hospitalisations feared by experts. Before that pivot to the goverment’s more pragmatic “Living with Covid” policy, placing responsibility with individuals rather than the state, then-health secretary Sajid Javid had already cut the self-isolation period from seven days to five as the Omicron wave of infections that hit the UK in December and spiked over the New Year fortunately failed to translate into the mass hospitalisations feared. The February change to the law also marked the end of £500 per month self-isolation support payments for people on low incomes and routine contact tracing, meaning that employees no longer had to notify their bosses that they must go into quarantine and that their close contacts were no longer required to undertake daily testing. While August finds Britain in a much better place in terms of infections, closer to just 120,000 per day according to the ZOE Health Study, the recent spike was a timely reminder that the coronavirus has not gone away and that we still need to be vigilant as mutations continue to emerge around the world.