People who have received both Covid-19 jabs may soon no longer have to self-isolate for 10 days after having come into contact with a person infected with the virus.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is said to be pushing for the replacement of self-isolation with daily testing – a policy that may come into effect soon, subject to approval from Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, which will depend on the results of a trial involving 40,000 people, the Times reported.
Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, told Times Radio that the US had already implemented this.
“The Centre for Disease Control changed their guidance a while ago to say that people who had had both doses of the vaccine … about 10-14 days after the second dose didn’t have to self-isolate, so I think we are moving in that direction,” she said.
“As we’ve heard repeatedly from Chris Whitty and others, this virus isn’t going to disappear.
“We’re going to have to live alongside it, [which] means we are going to have infections in future, so being a contact of someone infected will always be a possibility.”
Bauld added there will be discussions on testing children regularly instead of asking large numbers of them to self-isolate.
