Feb 9, 2022: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson has said the law requiring people with COVID-19 to be isolated could be lifted by the end of the month amid a reduction in infection rates.

“Provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions – including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive – a full month early,” Johnson told the United Kingdom Parliament on Wednesday.

Under the current law, people who test positive now have to be isolated for a full five days, this rule expires on March 24. Johnson added that he intends to present his plan to lift covid curbs when he returns from a short break in parliament on February 21.

He was also challenged by lawmakers during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons about a photo published on Wednesday by the Daily Mirror newspaper showing him at a Christmas quiz during December 2020 when strict restrictions on social gatherings were in place.

Johnson responded saying the event had already been submitted to the police for investigation as part of their investigation into alleged lockdown-breaking events held at his official Downing Street residence during the pandemic.

The prime minister has faced repeated calls from opposition lawmakers for his resignation over the so-called “Party Gate” scandal, while several members of his own party have also voted no-confidence in his leadership.

Face masks are no longer mandatory anywhere in England, except on London’s public transport network. Virus passports for gaining entry to nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home. The moves came amid a drop in both new infections and COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in the UK since early January, when the highly transmissible Omicron variant drove daily caseloads upwards to more than 200,000 a day.

The rules will also be relaxed for people traveling to the UK from Friday. Passengers fully vaccinated will not need to take any corona virus test before or after arrival, and those who have not been fully jabbed will not have to be isolated, although they do need to be tested.

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