UK minister backs reduced isolation period, to ease workforce pressures

Reducing the self-isolation period for people who test positive for Covid-19 from seven days to five would help British workforces that have been hard hit by absences, education minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Sunday.

The Omicron variant is still spreading in Britain and many businesses, schools and hospitals are struggling with staff shortages, fuelling calls for the rules on isolation after a positive test to be reduced further.

Last month, health authorities in the United States shortened the recommended isolation time with asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days.


"I would obviously always defer to the scientific advice on this. It would certainly help mitigate some of the pressures on schools, on critical workforce and others," Zahawi told Sky News after being asked whether he backed a move to five days.

He said the UK Health Security Agency was reviewing the length of the isolation period and that the government was doing all it could to make sure the stretched health service could operate during what he called "a rocky few weeks".

Teacher absences in schools stood at 8.5% and could rise further, he said, adding his department was drafting contingency plans for "every outcome" including for absenteeism to reach 25% and including asking retired teachers to help out.