On 24th February 2022 the government decided to end to the legal requirement to self isolate if anyone should test positive for COVID-19. The Tories also chose to end self isolation support payments but Covid provisions for statutory sick pay can still be claimed for another month. After a positive Covid test is registered, the government will no longer conduct routine contact tracing and will not continue asking for close contacts of the fully vaccinated and those under 18 to test daily for seven days. Additionally, there is now no legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self isolate. Until 1st April the government will advise those who test positive to stay home and after that date, they will be advised to ‘exercise personal responsibility like we would do for the flu. There will no longer by any guidance for staff and students in education and child care settings to undertake asymptomatic testing twice a week. Essentially the government is putting an emphasis on personal responsibility and ending all remaining domestic restrictions in the law.

More worryingly from 1st April symptomatic and asymptomatic testing will no longer be free for the public, however, the oldest age groups and those most vulnerable will still receive free testing. This ignores the fact that the greatest risk to these groups is from other people who aren’t vulnerable unknowingly giving them Covid. They need to know if their friends and family have the disease but if only the vulnerable have access to free testing then they won’t know until it’s too late. The government says they are working with retailers to ensure that everyone will have access to a test but this forces people to choose between ignorance and paying to find out if they have Covid. Free testing for diseases is not new in this country as testing for many ordinary diseases such as STIs is permitted by the NHS free of charge and there’s no reason Covid shouldn’t be treated the same way.

The government’s new approach to Covid lacks the financial support needed by those who self isolate. After April you essentially have to go to work when you’re sick and you can’t afford to stay home because the government won’t help you, if you want to be responsible and self isolate anyway the government will provide no assistance. The self isolation support payments allow many people to isolate who otherwise cannot afford to do so and it’s precisely these people who have been most at risk throughout the pandemic, with those in low income groups more likely to be exposed to Covid, suffer serious disease and die. These people will find it more difficult to afford testing that isn’t free. Essentially Johnson is telling every worker that unless you’re really sick you have to go into work because that’s the only way to keep getting paid.

About half a million people potentially won’t respond well to vaccines for a myriad of reasons, they may be on drugs for medical purposes that weaken them or have immunosuppressive conditions. All of these people have been ignored. Furthermore, there is still the question of long Covid which continues to represent a significant portion of those who contract the disease. Many thousands of people have seen permanent disabilities appear after contracting Covid so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the government to keep some basic measures that help lower its spread. Nevertheless, there was no announcement of spending on ventilation or other measures that would help limit the spread of Covid and the government has done nothing to prepare us for any possible new variant.

It’s clear that Johnson is only enacting these changes to please his backbenchers and distract from the ongoing investigation into parties at Downing Street. The more right wing sections of the Conservative party have been against Covid regulations from the beginning of the pandemic and by lifting all restrictions Johnson is giving them what they want in the hopes of keeping their support. It has always been clear that the Prime Minister is reluctant to take action to stop the spread of Covid so it’s not surprising that now it seems we’re past the worst of the pandemic Johnson is doing nothing to protect the vulnerable.

There is a need to take steps to keep the pandemic under control and these steps will need to be taken on a national and international scale. The Western world must ensure that the rest of the world is vaccinated to help prevent new variants from appearing again and we must still have some level of caution when handling the pandemic.

Part of going back to normal means taking steps to make sure everyone can live without fearing Covid. Many of the most vulnerable people in Britain have been forced into a perpetual lockdown for the entirety of the pandemic as they cannot safely leave their homes because the risk of catching the disease is too great. We have the opportunity to change society for the better instead the Tories are pushing more burdens onto the most vulnerable like they did with austerity policies after the 2008 financial crash. Good sick pay, ventilation in all public buildings, and free testing would help to keep people safe from Covid and other respiratory diseases. The cholera epidemics in the 1800s encouraged the government to supply clean water to the entire country and similarly, Covid should encourage our government to enact changes that will protect us from future pandemics instead of doing nothing.