Covid: How are the rules on self-isolation changing?

Quarantine regulations to be overhauled and NHS app updated to establish vaccine status under reopening measures planned from 19 July

What are the current rules for self-isolation and is it mandatory?

The UK government is preparing to change its rules on self-isolation and quarantine for those who have received both jabs of a Covid-19 vaccine, with the final social restrictions imposed on the public to combat the coronavirus set to be lifted in England on 19 July.

As part of the changes, travellers returning from amber list countries will not have to quarantine from 19 July if they have been double-jabbed and, from 16 August, the fully-vaccinated will not have to self-isolate if the NHS Covid-19 app informs them they have come into contact with a person who has tested positive for the virus.

Millions of people have downloaded the app over the course of the pandemic, allowing the NHS to easily notify individuals that they are at risk of having contracted Covid and advise them to enter a period of isolation to stop the spread.

Under the current rules, anyone who develops Covid symptoms themselves, tests positive for the virus, lives with someone else who has tested positive, is pinged by the app or has just returned from a trip to an amber list destination is expected to self-isolate for 10 days.

That means staying away from places of work and not even going out to essential shops (you are expected to order online or have a friend deliver groceries to your front door) in order to prevent the further transmission of the virus to others.

If you live with other people having developed symptoms or tested positive, they too must self-isolate and, ideally, you should keep apart, keep the windows open for ventilation, sleep and eat in separate rooms and, where possible, use different bathroom facilities.

While you are not legally bound to obey the app’s advice to self-isolate, obviously it’s very much in the wider interest of society that you do so in order to contain transmission of this deadly respiratory disease and safeguard others so that cases can be brought under control and restrictions ended.

Addressing the idea that people might simply shun the app, transport secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday: “You shouldn’t ignore this because it is vital information. People should want to know if they have been in contact with somebody with coronavirus. You don’t want to be spreading it around. It can still harm people.”

What if I’m fully-vaccinated or have had a negative test?

At present, even those who have had both jabs might be asked to self-isolate if a close contact tests positive, but under the new rules due to come into effect next month, that will no longer be the case, as health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed earlier this week.

Instead, the NHS app will ask about your vaccine status when delivering its notification, inquiring whether you have had both jabs at least two weeks prior to the notification being sent.

If the answer is yes, you will be advised to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test “as soon as possible” to determine whether or not you have the virus. If that test is negative, you will not have to be quarantined.

If the answer is no - or yes but you have developed symptoms - you will still be required to isolate as usual.

The rules will also change for children - yet to be offered the vaccine - from 16 August, with school pupils only required to isolate if they have tested positive to avoid whole classroom bubbles having to shield and miss further schooling after more than a year of disruption to education and exams.

The government is also considering exempting NHS staff from self-isolation requirements to support hospitals, with membership organisation NHS Providers currently arguing the case.

Why are we asking this now?

Prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement on Monday that Britain is on course to complete its roadmap out of lockdown in less than two weeks’ time saw the PM draw a line under social distancing and compulsory mask-wearing, paving the way for employees to return to offices and public venues to abandon capacity limits despite rising coronavirus case numbers.

The PM insisted that we must “learn to live with” Covid and that it is a case of “now or never” on reopening, even though new infections are forecast to hit 50,000 a day by the time restrictions are lifted and 100,000 later this summer, according to the British Medical Association, as new variants like the Lambda strain continue to emerge.

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer responded by calling the move to reopen completely “reckless” while Professor Stephen Reicher, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh and an outspoken member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), tweeted his disdain, calling the decision to prioritise the economy over public health “frightening”.

A coalition of over 122 scientists and doctors has since joined the chorus of criticism, publishing an open letter in The Lancet warning that Mr Johnson is engaged in a “dangerous and unethical experiment”, accusing his government of taking “grave risks” with citizens’ lives through “illogical” policy and creating “fertile ground for the emergence of vaccine-resistant” variants of the virus.

Mr Johnson’s plans could still change as the situation develops but, at the time of writing, he is due to make a final decision on unlocking on Monday 12 July and looks stubbornly set on his present course.