The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Covid-19 chief said it would be “premature” to end the requirement to self-isolate when infected.
The UK government is likely to lift the legal mandate in the coming weeks. Current isolation rules expire on 24 March but Boris Johnson said he would bring the date forward if Covid data was encouraging.
Asked about the change in a BBC interview, Maria van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on coronavirus, said: “I think it’s premature. I think there needs to be a clear reason of why it’s being dropped.
“If you don’t isolate cases then the virus will spread between people.”
Meanwhile, health authorities said they were investigating BA.2, a lineage of the Omicron variant, after it was found to have caused hundreds of coronavirus cases in England.
BA.2 is thought to be harder to track than the original Omicron variant as it does not have the specific mutation that would be helpful to easily distinguish it from Delta.
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