Self-isolation period to be ‘cut from two weeks to 10 DAYS’ for at-risk contacts of coronavirus cases across the entire UK as Government shortens stay-at-home orders ahead of Christmas
People forced to self-isolate after coming into contact with someone infected with coronavirus will only have to do so for 10 days instead of a fortnight in the UK.
The Government is expected to cut the self-isolation period by four days in the run-up to Christmas, The Sun reports.
It would mean that anyone contacted by NHS Test & Trace before next Tuesday, December 15, would still be allowed to meet up with others on Christmas Day.
The UK-wide move, if confirmed by officials, will follow in the footsteps of Wales, which officially made the change yesterday.
People are told to self-isolate after being close to someone who later tests positive for coronavirus in order to stop them spreading the disease if they caught it.
Many people transmit the virus to others without developing symptoms, or before they get ill, meaning self-isolation even for people who feel healthy is vital to stopping the virus in its tracks.
Two weeks has been the required length of isolation throughout the outbreak because almost nobody would still be infectious two weeks after catching the virus.
Wales’s chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton, however, said the science was strong enough to allow the period to be shortened, with the likelihood of people still being infectious after 10 days very low.
Scientific advisers in the UK may have come to the same conclusion after looking at evidence collected throughout the pandemic.
People who come into close contact with others who later test positive for coronavirus will no longer have to isolate for two weeks but for 10 days instead, reports suggest (Pictured: Commuters on the London Underground yesterday morning)