Boris Johnson ends all Covid restrictions in England for first time in two years

coronavirus in spring 2020 and the number of people having Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate has now risen to more than 183,000 according to the Office for National Statistics. "People will be asked to exercise personal responsibility just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others," the PM said.Johnson also set out a timetable for scaling back the availability of free coronavirus tests – although older and vulnerable people will continue to have access to them.They will end for the general public on April 1 but will continue to be available for for symptomatic people for the oldest age groups and those who are most vulnerable.Mr Johnson told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme the UK spent £2 billion on testing in January alone and that such high expenditure did not need to continue.Downing Street said the vaccination programme had left England in a “strong position to consider lifting the remaining legal restrictions”, with more than 81% of adults having received a booster dose, and Covid cases continuing to fall.Health experts have been critical of the decision to abandon the requirement to quarantine after a positive test result.Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association Dr Chaand Nagpaul called it an “odd decision to make” when there are “more people dying, more people in the hospital” than before Plan B measures were introduced last year in response to the pre-Christmas rising tide of Omicron cases.Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of SAGE’s modelling subgroup, told Times Radio there was a “real concern” that getting rid of the rules would lead to more infections in workplaces.Labour has also questioned the thinking around scaling back on the availability of free lateral.