The legal requirement to self-isolate will be removed from Thursday, and the end of free mass testing from 1 April are among the changes announced in England’s plan for “living with COVID”.
After almost two years living amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that all remaining restrictions are to come to an end and unveiled the government’s plan for “living with COVID” to MPs in the House of Commons yesterday in a bid to move from “government restrictions to personal responsibility”.
Speaking at a Downing Street news conference on Monday evening, Mr Johnson said “today is not the day we can declare victory over COVID”, but admitted that the nation had passed the peak of Omicron, with falling cases and hospital admissions.
He described the pandemic as “two of the darkest, grimmest years in our peacetime history”, but now is the country could complete the “transition back towards normality”.
All the changes announced will be subject to approval by Parliament.
ADVERTISEMENT
Announcing the changes yesterday, the Prime Minister said: “Because of the efforts we have made as a country over the past two years, we can now deal with it in a very different way, moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility, so we protect ourselves without losing our abilities and maintaining our contingent capabilities so we can respond rapidly to any new variant.”
Here’s all the changes announced yesterday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Covid-19 has not gone away, but because of the efforts we have made as a country over the past two years we can now move from government regulations to personal responsibility.
From today, the government is dropping its guidance for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.
From Thursday 24 February
ADVERTISEMENT
The legal requirement to self-isolate for those who test positive will end.
Vaccinated contacts of positive cases will no longer be asked to test for seven days.
There will no longer be a legal requirement for close contacts who are not vaccinated to self-isolate.
Contact tracing and venue check-ins on the COVID-19 app will also end.
The £500 self-isolation support payment for people on low incomes who test positive for COVID will no longer be available
COVID provisions for increased statutory sick pay will apply for a further month
On Thursday 24 March, it is expected that the government will issue and update wider guidance on workplace safety that had been changed for COVID.
From 1 April
Free universal testing for symptomatic and asymtomatic people will be scrapped and will instead be targeted at the most vulnerable.
The use of voluntarily COVID status certification will also no longer be recommended.
Remove the health and safety requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments.
People with COVID symptoms will be asked to exercise “personal responsibility” when deciding whether to stay at home.
The government says the country is ready to complete the “transition back towards normality” / Credit: Twitter (@manairport)
Speaking on the decision to end the legal requirement to self-isolate, Mr Johnson continued: “Until 1 April, we will still advise people who test positive to stay at home but after that we will encourage people with COVID-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others.”
On the end of universal free testing, the prime minister told MPs that the “biggest testing programme per person of any large country in the world” came “at vast cost”.
In an attempt to ensure people do not build up personal stockpiles of free lateral flow tests before the 1 April cut-off, individuals can now only order a box every three days, instead of every 24 hours.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr Johnson added that it is “only because levels of immunity are so high” that the remaining restrictions can be lifted.
He said “vaccines and treatments” must now been seen as “our first line of defence”.
The government says ministers and scientific experts will continue to “track the virus in granular detail”, and that it remains “ready to respond” if a new variant emerges and places unsustainable pressure on the NHS, through surveillance systems and contingency measures such as increased testing capacity or vaccine programmes.
We have come so far as a country and today we are setting out our plan to live with COVID. pic.twitter.com/invJTnKEu5
The government’s plan for “living with COVID” has drawn criticism from opposition and a growing number of medical professionals, including Chaand Nagpaul – Chair of the British Medical Association – who said the decision is “premature” and “not based on current evidence” or “guided by data”.
He said the strategy neglected some of society’s most vulnerable, and instead of giving people more freedom, it was likely to cause “more uncertainty and anxiety”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dr Nagpaul also called for “urgent clarity” on testing for NHS workers to protect staff and patients, and that “protections must be maintained for the most vulnerable, including the provision of enhanced face masks, and clear guidance for both patients and clinicians”.
The government’s scientific advisers on its SAGE committee also emphasised that there is “considerable uncertainty about the path the pandemic will now take in the UK”.
Chris Hopson – Chief Executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts – said many NHS figures were “concerned about the potential impact of these decisions”, and that it was “vital” the government was ready to restore phased out testing and surveillance systems should they be needed.
Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea is has got to be the most important of all the office supplies, surely?
According to the stats, Yokrshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencers teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.
This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.
It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.
And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.
Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.
Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.
A Manchester palaeontologist has unearthed bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile / Credit: UoM
“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.
“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”
He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.
As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.
The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.
During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.
The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.
Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.
“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.
Emily Sergeant -
22nd February 2022 
