The health secretary, Sajid Javid, says data shows that around two-thirds of positive cases are no longer infectious by the end of day five and “we want to use the testing capacity that we’ve built up to help these people leave isolation safely”
Though much remains uncertain, experts are beginning to understand more about the variant and how it affects people who are vaccinated, unvaccinated or who have had a Covid infection. For example, people who are exposed to omicron appear to get sick faster and may have symptoms that are different than those of other variants.
This move is a major boost for cross-Channel transport operators and winter sports travel firms – with the French government having imposed a ban on British tourists in December last year to control the spread of the Omicron variant.
