All remaining coronavirus restrictions are to be lifted, starting from this week. From Thursday, people in England will no longer be legally required to self-isolate after testing positive for the virus.
It was announced as part of Boris Johnson's plan for the country to "live with Covid" and move away from government restrictions to "personal responsibility." The guidance for students and staff to do twice-weekly testing has also been removed. READ MORE: All the key announcements from Boris Johnson's statement on 'living with Covid' Universal free testing will end in April whilst the over-75s and clinically vulnerable will be offered booster jabs in the Spring. "Because of the efforts we have made as a country over the past two years, we can now deal with it in a very different way, moving from Government restrictions to personal responsibility, so we protect ourselves without losing our abilities and maintaining our contingent capabilities so we can respond rapidly to any new variant," Mr Johnson said.
The decision has proved controversial, though, with the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer saying the government's "half-baked" plan would "leave us vulnerable." There was a cautious welcome for the move amongst shoppers the Manchester Evening News spoke to in one Stockport suburb yesterday (Monday). What do you think of the plans?
Have your say in our comments below However, several people on Edgeley's Castle Street expressed serious reservations and also said they were dubious about the timing of the announcement, with Boris Johnson's own position being called into doubt due to the investigation into alleged lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street.