Experts share concerns about scrapping of Covid isolation as Boris Johnson says now time for people to get their 'confidence back'

Boris Johnson is expected to tell MPs upon their return from Parliament’s February recess that the vaccine programme, testing and new treatments can be relied upon to keep the public safe.

However, Labour say that the move is an “attempt to distract from the police knocking at his door” as the public continues to wait for answers over Boris Johnson’s involvement in the partygate scandal.

The Chair of the British Medical Association has said that the need to stay at home if you test positive should only end when case rates are falling.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul believes it is “a rather odd decision to make”, and told BBC News: “You have at the moment more people dying, more people in the hospital, than you had before plan B was introduced.”

He added: “We need to see case rates fall down even more remembering that people aren’t being restricted at the moment in any severe way at all – people are living normally”.

Mr Johnson has said that the move would not mean throwing “caution to the wind” and thinks that “now is the moment for everybody to get their confidence back”, but warned that the country must stay “humble in the face of nature”.

He told the BBC this morning: “We’ve reached a stage where we think you can shift the balance away from state mandation, away from banning certain courses of action, compelling certain courses of action, in favour of encouraging personal responsibility.”

Asked if there will be no more Covid restrictions in England again, he said: “I don’t want to go back to that kind of non-pharmaceutical intervention.

“I want to be able to address the problems of the pandemic with a vaccine-led approach.”

He added: “You’ve got to be humble in the face of nature.”

By the end of the week, self-isolation regulations will be scrapped for those who test positive and their close contacts, officials said.

Tomorrow’s ‘Living with Covid’ plan will outline how Local authorities will be required to manage outbreaks with pre-existing public health powers, as they would with other diseases.

Downing Street said pharmaceutical interventions will “continue to be our first line of defence”, with the vaccine programme remaining “open to anyone who has not yet come forward”.

With 85% of the UK’s population double-vaccinated, and 38 million booster jabs administered, No 10 said it had concluded “Government intervention in people’s lives can now finally end”.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for Ministers to publish the scientific evidence being used to influence these decisions.

He said: “Boris Johnson is declaring victory before the war is over, in an attempt to distract from the police knocking at his door.

"Labour doesn’t want to see restrictions in place any longer than they need to be.

“The Government should publish the evidence behind this decision, so the public can have faith that it is being made in the national interest.

"Now is not the time to start charging for tests or weaken sick pay, when people are still being asked to behave responsibly.”