The legal requirement for self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 has been lifted in England and scientists are concerned that the changes will lead to more infections and possible new variants.
As of February 24, people no longer need to be legally isolated, but the UK government says it will continue to advise those who have a positive effect until April 1 to stay home and avoid contact with others for five days. and then be negative for two days in a ROW.
Mask use and social distance are not mandatory in England from the end of January.
Zoe Hyde, an epidemiologist at the University of Western Australia, told DW that while easing quarantine requirements for contact contacts could be justified if there were protocols such as a negative test, this does not apply to positive cases.
“Ending the demand for isolation of known cases is in stark contrast to public health,” Hyde said.
“It’s a recipe for more transmission, more disease waves, new variants and constant disruption to health systems and the economy,” he added.
However, Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, told DW that changing the rules would not result in all positive cases choosing not to isolate themselves.
“This is part of the transition to living next to the virus, where we are moving away from rules that are becoming increasingly difficult to enforce,” Bennett said.
“Abolishing the rules of isolation does not mean that people should stop being isolated, just as having rules does not mean that everyone follows them. So while there may be more people getting involved than there are today, there will be no “It’s a step change from 0% to 100%,” said Bennett.
Pressure for work
Sarah Pitt, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton and a fellow at the UK-based Institute of Biomedical Sciences, told DW she was concerned that people with COVID-19 who needed to rest would be pressured to go to job the isolation requirement falls.
“This can affect the time it takes them to recover, it can increase the risk of developing long-term COVID and it can also infect other people,” Pete said.
The loss of financial aid for people who are too ill to work adds another layer of stress.
From February 24, self-isolation support payments will expire, along with national funding for practical support and the drug delivery service.
“Removing the legal requirement for self-isolation means that people will not receive the same financial assistance they used to have, so some people will have to go to work when they really need to be at home,” Pete said.
Concern for variations
Scientists have also expressed concern about the change in England’s rules of self-isolation and the possibility of new variants.
“Mutations can occur anywhere during virus replication, and the higher the infection rates, the faster we can see one,” Bennett said.
A press release on the “government plan for life with COVID” states that the United Kingdom “will start treating Covid with other infectious diseases such as the flu”.
But the coronavirus is more contagious than the flu.
Pete said the coronavirus was very unpredictable and had not yet subsided.
“There is absolutely nothing in virology to suggest that any new variants will be milder than the micron,” Pete said.
On Twitter, Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London, expressed concern about Omicron’s BA.2 subcategory as the UK government plans to end all self-isolation.
“In the meantime, our government seems to have decided to stop free majority testing and self-isolation for all. It has never been an issue * if a VOC occurs *. We have one now, and that is growing in the UK and worldwide.” , Gurdasani wrote, referring to variations that cause concern.
In a statement on February 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) said studies had shown that BA.2 had a growth advantage over BA.1 and that initial data suggested that BA.2 was “inherently more contagious.” from BA.1, which is currently the most common omic underline mentioned.
Living with the virus
Investing in public health messages is important for creating behavior change, Bennett said.
The epidemiologist said that if the public understood that simpler measures, such as the use of a mask indoors, would help reduce the risk of transmission when infection rates increased, this would help reduce the need for more formal rules.
“Then we move on to a more sustainable approach to controlling infectious diseases,” Bennett said.
Boosting vaccines could also help offset changes to England’s rules of self-isolation, he added.
“If increasing booster doses can halve symptomatic micronutrient infection for five months or more, then this could offset changes in isolation rules if more effort was made to make vaccines available worldwide,” he said. Bennet.
But living with the coronavirus means understanding the virus, Pete said, including how contagious it is, how it spreads and how serious the disease can be – even in vaccinated people.
A sensible precaution would be to continue wearing face masks on public transportation, Pete said. As of February 24, masks will no longer be required on public transport in London. But Transport for London, the government agency responsible for most of London’s public transport, has advised masked passengers to continue to do so.
“We do not complain when healthcare workers wear gloves to examine patients these days,” Pitt said, “but this precaution was only introduced as a measure of protection against HIV in the 1980s and 1990s.”
The use of a mask could become part of life to protect people from coronavirus and other airborne diseases, just as the use of surgical gloves did.
“It was controversial at the time, but it’s normal practice now,” Pete said.
Edited by: Carla Bleiker
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