Boris Johnson Scraps Plan B Covid Measures As He Fights To Survive Partygate

The announcement will likely please some Tory backbenchers who have been openly critical of Covid restrictions.
Boris Johnson announces the end to Plan B restrictions
Boris Johnson announces the end to Plan B restrictions
HuffPost UK

The work from home order, Covid passes and mandatory face masks will be scrapped, Boris Johnson has announced.

Speaking in the Commons, the prime minister said people were no longer advised to work from home as the Plan B list of rules was ditched.

From Thursday next week mandatory Covid passes will end.

The legal requirement for people with coronavirus to self-isolate will also be allowed to lapse when the regulations expire on March 24, and that date could be brought forward.

When it comes to face masks, the government will no longer make people wear them anywhere from next Thursday and they will be scrapped in classrooms from this Thursday, with school communal areas to follow.

The announcement is seen as the latest move in what has been dubbed “Operation Red Meat” - a policy splurge by No10 in a bid to win back the support of mutinous Tory MPs and the public after partygate.

Plan B curbs were originally rolled out in December to combat the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

It is good news if the Cabinet does decide this morning to lift some "Plan B" restrictions.

But the job isn't done if mask wearing remains in place. The evidence for masks is weak & the many downsides are persistently discounted.

All Plan B measures need lifting *for good*.

— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) January 19, 2022

The announcement will likely please some Tory backbenchers who have been openly critical of covid restrictions.

It was also reported in The Times that local Covid testing centres will start to be shut down from the spring as part of the long-term strategy for living with the virus.

The Treasury is demanding savings from the £10 billion testing budget and health officials have begun working on a plan to scale back the network, according to the paper.

The news comes as Covid infection levels are falling in most parts of the UK for the first time since early December.

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