Zahawi says cutting Covid isolation period to five days would be ‘helpful’
A senior cabinet minister has expressed his support for cutting the Covid self-isolation period from seven to five days.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the measure, which has been recommended by America’s Centre for Disease Control, would be “helpful” for the British economy as the Omicron wave hits its peak.
It comes as new analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research suggests Omicron-enforced staff absences could cost the economy £35bn.
Covid cases are currently at around 150,000 a day, with some scientists suggesting the UK could be at the peak of the wave.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Zahawi said: “The UK Health Security Agency have said they want to review it, so we will stick to seven days, but if they review it and say they will bring it down to five days that is even better for me, it’s even more helpful.”
He then told Sky News this morning the measure would “certainly help mitigate some of the pressures on schools, on critical workforce and others”.
“But I would absolutely be driven by advice from the experts, the scientists, on whether we should move to five days from seven days. What you don’t want is to create the wrong outcome by higher levels of infection,” he said.
“I hope we will be one of the first major economies to demonstrate to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic, and then deal with this however long it remains with us, whether that’s five, six, seven, 10 years.”
It comes as The Times also reported that Boris Johnson is set to scrap free lateral flow testing within weeks.
The 30-minute tests would only be free for people in high risks settings like hospitals and care homes in this scenario.
However, Zahawi said this was wrong and was “absolutely not where we are at”.