We are approaching two full years of the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions are still in place. Gone are the days of lockdowns, 10pm curfews, and Eat Out to Help Out, and now even the most recent restrictions, Plan B, are being removed.
Plan B came into place in England in December to help tackle the Omicron variant and included the return of compulsory mask-wearing in shops and on public transport, and vaccine passes to enter nightlife venues and stadiums. Following the decrease in cases, from 27 January these restrictions will once again be removed. Face coverings will remain mandatory on London’s public transport services and self-isolation for those who test positive will stay in place, but all other restrictions will be removed.
24 March sets the date when restrictions are set to expire completely. This means that self-isolation will not be a legal requirement, even if you test positive. Last week, Boris Johnson made the announcement to the House of Commons: “There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don’t place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.
“As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.
“The self-isolation regulations expire on March 24, at which point I very much expect not to renew them. Indeed, were the data to allow, I’d like to seek a vote in this House to bring that date forward.”
But is removing restrictions all together the best idea? After two years of endless restrictions, it’s safe to say that everybody will be happy to see the end of them, but could this approach take us back to square one?
Obviously, restrictions cannot stay in place forever. Industries such as arts and hospitality have struggled tirelessly for the past two years, and countless people have lost their livelihoods as a result of restrictions, not to mention the toll on so many people’s mental health. Covid will never fully go away and at some point, we must learn to live with it.
Taking a look at the recent figures, the last seven days have averaged just over 81,000 cases per day whilst deaths have averaged at 230 per day. This means that 0.3% of cases have resulted in deaths. Whilst this number seems so small, when comparing it to the flu it is clear we still have some way to go. In 2019, 1223 people died from the flu, an average of 23 per week.
The question is, is right now the time to learn to live with Covid? Whilst the death rate is considerably smaller for the Omicron variant, it is still 10x that of the flu. It is often easy to forget when reporting death statistics that each one of those figures is a person and surrounding them are a grieving family. Just because fewer people are dying does not mean we should completely disregard those who are.
The lifting of restrictions on social distancing, hospitality and working from home were necessary to keep industries alive and return a sense of normality to the UK. But do we really need to lift restrictions on mask-wearing and self-isolation? Putting on a mask before heading into a supermarket or getting on the bus takes such little toll on our lives but has been a huge part of keeping cases down and returning us to normality. It seems counterproductive to remove such a small restriction which could make such a big impact.
The same applies with the removal of self-isolation. Allowing those who are positive to carry on as normal is only going to cause cases to skyrocket and undo all the work that restrictions have done for the past two years.
I completely support the removal of restrictions as of course we can’t continue to go in and out of lockdown forever, but removing the smallest restrictions that place no real strain on our day-to-day life is only going to be a step backwards. Mask-wearing and self-isolation has worked to reduce cases and deaths for the past two years and keeping it in place would continue to do so. We must learn to live with Covid, but the Government’s decision to remove every restriction as soon as figures start to improve is sure to take us back to square one, just as it has countless times over the past two years. Keeping some restrictions in place, even just for a couple more months, has the potential to put us in a far better position to successfully live with Covid for the first time since the pandemic began.