Hospitals are being advised to delay surgery by seven weeks for anyone who has just tested positive for Covid.
There are fears anyone having surgery within the first two months of having had the virus could be more prone to infections and post-operative complications.
Hospitals are also being advised that patients should be fully vaccinated before their treatment goes ahead, reports the BBC.
The advice has been constructed by surgery and anaesthesia experts and published in the journal Anaesthesia.
Six million people - one in every nine in the country - are currently waiting for NHS treatment.
Prof Duncan Summerton, one of the authors of the report and president of the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations, said there should be "full and frank discussions" between patients and their doctors about whether to proceed surgery.
