Covid: Isolation period for positive cases reduced to 5 days in England

If you catch Covid-19 in England, you will soon only have to self-isolate for five full days, provided you can show two negative tests before your isolation ends.

Currently the rules say you have to isolate for seven days, but this will change on Monday 17 January.

The health secretary Sajid Javid said that he's making this change after "reviewing all of the evidence".

This comes after the isolation period was brought down from ten days in December last year.

You still need to test negative

From Monday, people will be able to leave isolation on day six if they can show negative results of lateral flow tests on day five and day six too.

But if if you keep testing positive, you have to stay put until you get negative results for two days in a row.

People in government wanted to do this to help areas of the country that were facing lots of Covid-related absences, such as teachers in schools.

Sajid Javid, who is in charge of the NHS and health policy in England, has also said data shows two-thirds of positive Covid-19 cases were no longer infectious by day five.

This means that at that point, according to the data, most people would not be able to pass the virus on to others.

Sajid Javid is the Heath Secretary who decides on the covid rules for England

Mr Javid has said he wants to "restore the freedoms to this country while we're keeping everyone safe".

The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting of the Labour party, welcomed the new isolation rules.

However, he said testing needed to be "sorted out", adding that lots of people have been unable to access tests when they've needed them.

What are the rules around the UK?

The other UK nations have their own rules around self-isolation.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, you have to isolate for seven days, and it will stay that way even after England's rules change on Monday.