British PM Boris Johnson drops COVID-19 restrictions
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said that most restrictions deployed to fight the latest wave of the Covid pandemic in England would be lifted from next week. People will no longer have to wear masks in closed spaces, work from home and prove vaccination to enter public spaces such as nightclubs, Johnson told parliament.
- World
- Reuters
- Published Date: 04:10 | 19 January 2022
- Modified Date: 04:10 | 19 January 2022
People in England will no longer be required to wear face masks anywhere or work from home from next week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday, adding that scientists believed a wave of the Omicron coronavirus variant had peaked nationally.
Johnson also said that while people would still be required to self-isolate for now, he did not expect to renew self-isolation legislation, which will expire in March, and would look into scrapping the requirement sooner.
"Because of the extraordinary booster campaign, together with the way the public have responded to the Plan B measures, we can return to Plan A in England and allow Plan B regulations to expire as a result from the start of Thursday next week," Johnson told parliament.
Johnson said mandatory COVID-19 certification would end, though businesses could choose to continue COVID passes if they wanted to.