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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Bev Lyons

Dr Hilary Jones unhappy with government's decision to change the restrictions on Covid 19 - as he warns people to be cautious

Dr Hilary Jones has said he is unhappy with the government's decision to change the restrictions on Covid 19 - as he warned people to be cautious.

The TV doctor appeared on Good Morning Britain and said the latest news regarding Plan B restrictions being lifted "made no sense".

On Wednesday, Boris Johnson confirmed he planned to end the legal requirement for those who test positive with coronavirus in England to self-isolate in the coming weeks.

He'd said: "On Monday we reduced the isolation period to five full days with two negative tests.

"And there will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don't place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu."

He added: "As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.

"The self-isolation regulations expire on March 24, at which point I very much expect not to renew them."

Dr Hilary told GMB presenters Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard: "We are seeing younger and younger people affected by Covid-19, Omicron as well as Delta and other variants across the board, the threat is still there. We are not out of the woods yet."

Regarding the restrictions being lifted, he added: "This is a worry to many, many people, it's not just me who thinks it's too much too soon.

"Teachers, N HS providers, Royal College of Nursing, Unison, they're all very concerned that taking away all restrictions suddenly despite the data is too much too soon.

"Hospitality will be happy, hospitals will be terrified, it's as simple as that."

Dr Hilary also believes people who won't isolate in future following a Covid diagnosis will have a detrimental effect.

He explained: "Of course, it is gonna increase transmission enormously, if you are not self-isolating despite having Covid, you're taking that virus out into the community.

"Despite vaccination there will be a lot of people who still don't have immunity, or who the vaccination hasn't been effective."

"People talk about this being an endemic now. People talk about the fact we will have to learn to live with Covid, and indeed we will have to learn to live with Covid, but at the same time we'll also have to learn to die with Covid.

"I tell you, it's not just because of Covid, it's because people won't be able to get their operations in hospital, they won't be able to get treatment for strokes, for heart disease, for cancer, if you look at the facts at the moment six million people are on the waiting list.

"We've got staff shortages, we had a recruitment crisis in the NHS even before Covid, so we can't avoid those indirect harms.

"If you're saying you don't have to self-isolate you are basically saying infectious disease doesn't matter.

You're saying if you've got an infection whatever it is, whether it's Covid or flu or pneumonia or anything else that's contagious, go out there amongst society and spread it around."

"It makes no sense to me."

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