Free Covid tests will end in England from April 1 under the government’s plan for living with the virus.
Members of the public who want to take a test will need to spend around £20 for a box as a result of the move.
Boris Johnson announced the decision as part of the government’s “living with Covid” strategy, which will see all legal Covid restrictions lifted within weeks.
In addition, from this Thursday people will no longer have to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid. Currently, the rules state that anyone who has tested positive or has symptoms must isolate for up to 10 days.
Johnson’s statement was delayed after a row broke out between chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid over the plans to scale back the free testing.
Johnson began his Commons statement by warning that the “pandemic is not over”, with the Queen’s positive test a “reminder this virus has not gone away”.
But he said he wanted people to take personal responsibility for dealing with the pandemic, rather than relying on government intervention.
Setting out the plan in the Commons, Johnson said: “It’s only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now, if anything, below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions.
“And it’s only because we know Omicron is less severe, that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we’ve been doing is much less important and much less valuable in preventing serious illness.”
He added: “We now have sufficient levels of immunity to move from protecting people with government interventions to rely on vaccines and treatments as the first line of defence.”
Although universal free testing will end from April, Johnson said they would remain free for older age groups and the most vulnerable, while a degree of asymptomatic testing will continue in risky settings such as in social care.
Diagnostic testing of hospital patients will also continue.
Under the new rules, those who receive a positive test will still be advised to stay at home for at least five days, but will not be legally obliged to do so.
The government will also no longer ask vaccinated contacts and those under 18 to test for seven days and will remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not vaccinated to self-isolate.
Routine contact tracing will also end on Thursday, as will self-isolation payments and the legal obligation for individuals to tell their employers about their requirement to isolate.
Meanwhile, changes to statutory sick pay and employment support allowance will end on March 24.
People aged 75 and over, the immunosuppressed and those living in care homes will be offered another booster vaccine this spring under the plans.
Responding to the statement, Labour leader Keir Starmer said the government must do everything to avoid the loss and lockdowns the country faced during the pandemic.
He said: “The prime minister promised to present a plan for living with Covid but all we’ve got today is yet more chaos and disarray and not enough to prepare us for the new variants which may yet develop, an approach which seems to think that living with Covid means simply ignoring it.
“This morning he couldn’t even persuade his own health secretary to agree the plan.
“So what confidence can the public have that this is the right approach?”
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, claimed the decisions were “bereft of science or consultation”.
“It appears these dangerous choices are purely political and are being made up on the hoof, it is another symptom of a government in turmoil,” he said.
“A prime minister who has no moral authority to lead desperately seeking to appease his backbenchers….This statement is not about protecting the public, it’s about the prime minister scrambling to save his own skin.”