Brits testing positive for Covid are wrongly being told that they still have to self-isolate for 10 days despite the rules having changed, it is reported.
Latest government advice from Health Secretary Sajid Javid is for people to isolate for seven days if they have negative lateral flow tests on day six and seven.
But it has been reported that messages from NHS Test and Trace are still telling people to isolate for 10 days despite the new guidelines last week
"You recently tested positive for Covid-19 and must now stay at home and self-isolate for at least 10 days,” read an email from the NHS that was sent on Christmas Day, it has been reported.
A UK Health Security Agency spokesman told the Telegraph : “The stay at home guidance for people testing positive and their household contacts is clear and widely communicated to ensure people know how to protect themselves and others.
“Legislation on the self-isolation period remains 10 days but as widely publicised by UKHSA, our guidance has been updated to include an exemption that can be applied to reduce self-isolation to seven days in most cases, if you test negative on two lateral flow tests consecutively and taken at least 24 hours apart, with the first test taken on day six at the earliest.
“We are working with our NHS partners to review all messages sent to positive cases to ensure any communications reflect the introduction of the self-isolation exemption.”
Covid cases continue to rise in the UK but early indications suggest that the new Omicron variant is not as deadly as Delta.
There have been calls for self-isolation to be reduced further, to five days, for people testing positive.
In the United States it has been cut from 10 days to five for people who are asymptomatic but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have yet to make any changes to the 10 day rule.
The president of the CBI, Lord Bilimoria, pointed out that South Africa - where Omicron was first detected - had gone further dropping the requirement to self-isolate altogether for those who are asymptomatic.
"We have got to do everything we can to stop the disruption to our lives and to our livelihoods and to the economy in as safe a way as possible," he told the BBC.
"We need people to isolate for as little time as possible."
There was another record high of Covid cases on Tuesday with a further 117,093 people testing positive in the UK
There are 9,546 people hospitalised, the highest since March but it is a long way below the peak of 34,000 in January.
So far, the spike in Omicron cases has not led to a similarly steep increase in hospital admissions, even taking into account the lag between infection and hospital treatment.
