If someone tests positive for Covid but do not feel ill they should still come into work, a leading hotelier says.

"If the reality of this is that we’re saying that Covid isn’t a pandemic anymore, it’s an endemic disease and like flu, it should be treated like flu," Rocco Forte tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.

“And therefore you don’t test every worker who falls ill with flu. You tell people to stay at home if they’re not feeling well.”

Asked if an employee who tests positive for Covid but does not feel unwell should still come into work, he replies: "Yes, I would say that."

Image source, Getty Images

The detail from the government about which Covid rules are ending is due later - and it's likely the legal requirement to self-isolate will be ditched.

The Trades Union Congress says that will force workers to make a "terrible choice" between going into work while infected with Covid, or risk losing income by self-isolating at home.

Two million workers in low-paid jobs do not qualify for sick pay, so would not get anything if they miss work, the TUC said.

Currently, people on a low income who are told to self-isolate may be entitled to financial help.

"If they have Covid, they want to be able to stay at home without facing a terrible choice about losing income for a week. They want to keep their colleagues safe," says Kate Bell of the TUC.

"That shouldn't be a choice that people are forced to make on their own."

More here.

Image source, EPA

While many people will choose to continue wearing face masks, Prof Bell says he doesn't think wearing them "indefinitely is really going to help".

The professor of medicine at Oxford University says masks "didn't really help" with the more transmissible Omicron variant and while they probably reduced transmission, they could not prevent it.

“I don’t think mandating mask-wearing is necessarily a sensible thing," he tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.

On the possibility of more dangerous variants emerging, Prof Bell says he is "pretty confident" new variants will emerge, which could be more serious than Omicron, but that the immunity from vaccines will probably continue to be effective against severe disease.

He says we shouldn't stop thinking about how to prepare for future pandemics, which he describes as "inevitable" and more likely to happen in the next 10 years than the next 100 years.

Now is "not a bad time" to start stepping back restrictions because vaccines have been "hugely effective" at reducing severe disease from Covid, a leading scientist says.

Sir John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford University who was involved in developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, says we are now in a position where legally enforced self-isolation is "probably not necessary".

"I think we can rely pretty effectively on good behaviour from the population to avoid spread of the disease," he tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, adding that only the unvaccinated are now "really suffering badly" from Covid.

In response to reports free testing will be scaled back, Prof Bell says moving to a "purely commercial model" of testing would be "problematic" because of the "excruciating prices" some private companies are charging for relatively cheap tests.

He adds that while testing should still be offered in hospitals, care homes and for the immunosuppressed, as well as for some national surveillance of the virus, "we are doing a lot more testing than we need to be".

Image source, Kirsty Evans

Kirsty Evans, 35, lives in Colchester with her husband and her parents. They've all been vaccinated - but her dad has Parkinson's Disease and has been told he must shield.

"We are all extremely concerned that lifting these final restrictions will take away that little bit of freedom we have managed to find for ourselves," she says.

"We feel that the government have completely disregarded vulnerable people. What on earth are we meant to do now?"

She says they had only recently been able to experience a bit of freedom but feel that removing restrictions will snatch that away from them.

"It’s very difficult because wherever when we go anywhere at all we’re having to do a mental risk assessment," she says.

Kirsty says her dad will end up being mostly housebound other than trips out in the car.

And she says that she and her husband, who both have ill health, are going to have to stop the minimal amount of socialising they've been doing.

Kirsty adds that it's "really frightening" to think that tradespeople coming in to their house could have Covid and they would not know about it.

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

We've been hearing about the discussions over footing the bill for testing in England going forward.

The prime minister said in a BBC interview over the weekend: “On testing, we don’t need to keep spending at a rate of £2bn a month, which is what we were doing in January”.

We know that £2bn would make it a very expensive month. The Public Accounts Committee, a group of MPs which keeps an eye on government spending, said that the initial allocation for NHS Test and Trace was £37bn over two years, but it underspent by £8.7bn in the first year. So that's an average of £1.2bn a month.

Test and Trace is responsible for both the quick lateral flow tests and the PCR tests that have to be sent away to a lab.

But we also know that there was a lot of Covid around in January, with more than 200,000 cases a day early in the month, so you would expect there to have been much more testing than in a normal month.

That means that unless there was another new variant like Omicron, we’d be very unlikely to continue spending £2bn a month even without changes to government policy.

We’ve been told we can’t get a breakdown of the £2bn a month figure from the Department of Health or the UK Health Security Agency. We’ve asked No 10 and we’ll let you know if they come back with any more details.

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

A little more now on what's been happening in Downing Street over changes to coronavirus restrictions this morning.

It’s suggested that the Department of Health and Social Care warned the Treasury that a refusal to provide extra cash for its NHS testing plan could lead to cuts elsewhere.

The stand-off has now been resolved, with no extra funding being made available.

The health department may instead reallocate some of its existing budget to maintain schemes like free tests for NHS staff, even if they do not have Covid symptoms.

The prime minister will give a statement to MPs this afternoon, ahead of a news conference later, on future plans for "living with Covid".

Here's a summary of what we know so far and the other main Covid developments today:

• Boris Johnson is expected to announce that all remaining legal restrictions in England will be scrapped. It could come at about 16:30 GMT but timings are reliant on other statements and questions too
• It's a little later than expected as there was a delay to ministers agreeing the plans at a cabinet meeting earlier - that meeting has now been taking place virtually
• The requirement to self-isolate is expected to be dropped and testing to be scaled back
• Labour, along with some experts, is concerned about the possibility of limiting free testing
• And unions said people should not be forced to choose whether to go into work with Covid or risk losing income by self-isolating at home
• Meanwhile, the Queen is continuing to work on "light duties" at Windsor Castle this week, despite testing positive for the virus
• And it's G'day from them - Australia has reopened its international border for the first time in nearly two years

Here's a bit more detail about what we can expect later.

Boris Johnson is due to set out his plans to the Commons at about 4.30pm - but the timings could change amid other questions and statements - like that on the situation in Ukraine.

It comes after a delayed cabinet meeting, chaired by the PM, which is likely to be a call rather than an in-person meeting for all.

That meeting was postponed so Johnson could have a security briefing and take part in further Covid meetings, his official spokesman says.

Our correspondents have also been told by sources of delays while there was haggling over the costs and timings involved.

Then later, there will be a press conference at Downing Street, led by Johnson. Chief medical officer for England Prof Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance will be joining him.

Despite all the wrangling, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give a statement on his "living with Covid" plan to MPs on Monday afternoon, the House of Commons has now confirmed.

It comes after the cabinet meeting where the plan was due to be signed off by ministers was delayed - although we're expecting it to start relatively soon now.

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

I'm told:

• Department of Health asked No 11 for more than £5bn extra last week to maintain more free testing, e.g. testing of NHS staff even if they didn't have symptoms
• By Saturday, Department of Health's demand down to £3bn but warned of cuts elsewhere if no more £££
• By Sunday, department's demand down to £1.8bn

But it seems talks between Department of Health and Treasury now settled with no extra cash, plan seems instead to move money around within existing Department of Health budget.

Cabinet expected to be relatively soon after this morning's delay.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has responded to the reports that there is a delay within government signing off the "living with Covid" plan.

In a series of tweets, she highlights that the reality of the way the UK is financed means the decision will determine the money devolved administrations (paid for by taxpayers in Scotland, Wales & NI) have for testing.

"Expressed frustration to (UK government minister) Michael Gove this morning that we still don't know & this delay deepens that," she says.

She adds her concern is more than about access to free testing but also that the UK will not be able to keep an eye on long term surveillance of the virus and any new variants emerging.

"Let's hope common sense prevails," she says.

Image source, Reuters

Back to the delays to Cabinet reaching agreement on Covid restriction changes in the UK and Labour calls the situation a sign the government is "paralysed by its own chaos and incompetence".

"This shambles cannot continue," shadow health secretary Wes Streeting says.

"What confidence can the public have that the Conservatives are acting in the national interest when they can't agree a plan for Covid?"

He accuses the prime minister of trying to "declare victory before the war is over" to distract people from the ongoing police investigation into lockdown parties at No 10.

Away from developments in the UK, there have been joyful reunions of friends and family in Australia as it reopened its international border to foreign visitors for the first time in nearly two years.

The country imposed some of the world's strictest travel bans after the outbreak of coronavirus. Australian nationals and some others were allowed to return from late last year - but most foreigners have had to wait until now.

Double-jabbed visitors do not have to quarantine. The only exception to the opening up is Western Australia, which remains closed until 3 March and will require three jabs.

Hundreds of people began arriving at Sydney Airport on Monday morning, with tears of joy - and lots of hugs - as our video above shows.

Image source, Ann Hayes

We've been hearing from readers about their thoughts on changes to Covid rules in England expected to be announced later today.

Ann Hayes, 69, from Hertfordshire, has been shielding because she has lymphoma and has had treatment that affects her immune system.

She has started to see friends at home if they have a lateral flow test first and to go to places where she can wear a mask, like shops - but she has not been to a restaurant, theatre or cinema for two years.

It is "particularly scary to think about normal life when infection rates are so high", she says.

She says people like her who are clinically vulnerable "feel forgotten about" - and asks: "What are we supposed to do now?"

We don't know yet what is going to be announced on tests for England - although there have been hints and speculation that free mass testing could be ditched. And there's some sort of delay to cabinet ministers meeting and agreeing plans.

But the Welsh government has issued a pretty strong statement urging against changes.

"Any decision to change the existing National Testing Programme would be premature and reckless," a Welsh government spokesperson said.

"Testing has played a pivotal role in breaking chains of transmission of Covid, and has acted as a powerful surveillance tool helping us to detect and respond rapidly to emerging variants. It is clearly essential that this continues.

"Any decision to effectively turn off the tap on our National Testing Programme with no future plans in place to reactivate it would put people at risk. This is not acceptable.

"In Wales, we will continue to make decisions to protect the health of people based on the scientific evidence available to us."

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

The cabinet meeting to agree the changes was scheduled to be taking place right now.

We've seen ministers going into No 10, but I've been told that meeting has been delayed.

There's been no time given for its resumption - and what isn't clear is exactly why it's been delayed.

Downing Street sources are suggesting the prime minister needed to receive a briefing. There's a lot going on at home and abroad at the moment, that's perfectly credible.

But some other sources in government are suggesting that there's ongoing tensions with the Department of Health because today was the day the "living with Covid" strategy was to be unveiled.

We're still expecting the prime minister to give a statement to that effect later today in Parliament, we're still expecting a press conference.

But the underlying tensions, I'm told, are around the cost of testing.

The question is when and whether free testing would be withdrawn - who would be still eligible, what vulnerable groups would still be eligible and how many people will have to pay for tests in the future.

This has been something of a political hot potato inside government and indeed with the opposition parties too.

Image source, Reuters

Throughout the pandemic, the different countries of the UK have moved at slightly different times when it comes to placing - or lifting - restrictions.

We're going to be hearing from Boris Johnson later about what the plans are for England.

Currently, the measures still in place include self-isolation, as well as venues being able to ask customers to show a Covid pass and face coverings being required in some health and care settings.

In Northern Ireland there are no longer any legally binding Covid-19 restrictions - they were lifted last week, on 15 February.

Instead, there is guidance - like recommending the use of face masks in some public settings.

In Scotland and Wales, isolation rules are still in place. Scotland also requires shops and businesses to take measures to limit the spread of Covid, face coverings have to be worn on public transport and in most indoor settings, and there is still a 2m distancing rule in healthcare settings.

Wales has compulsory face covering rules for schools, public transport, shops and hospitals, and secondary school pupils have to test for Covid three times a week.

All the information is in our explainer here.

Anthony Costello - professor of international child health and director of the UCL institute for global health - has been reacting to the expected end of Covid restrictions in England.

He says "we must follow the science" - and that if we stop self-isolation, the virus will spread.

"The worry about lifting the legal restrictions is that we are telling not only our population, but the world, that there is really nothing to worry about," he says.

"That it is all over... when it isn't."

If free testing is brought to an end, he says, then the virus cannot be controlled - because no-one knows where the threat is.

So as we have been reporting, Boris Johnson is expected to detail plans later for how the country lives with coronavirus.

And there's been a fair bit of reaction to that so far.

Prof Sir Andrew Pollard - director of the Oxford Vaccine Group - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the UK has a "wall of immunity now" thanks to the number of people who have had Covid vaccines.

But he admits taking a decision on when and how to reduce restrictions is "enormously difficult".

The benefits of restrictions are obvious because they cut the chains of transmission and reduce the risk of infection - but the harms of restrictions are trickier to assess, he reflects.

They include impacts on hospitals when staff isolate; the impact on education; the workplace and the economy overall.

And it's hard to measure all of those.

"There isn't a right or wrong answer to this because we don't have a measure that helps us get there," he says.