14th December 2020
Self-isolation is essential to reducing the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) as it breaks the chains of transmission. After reviewing the evidence, the Department for Health and Social Care is now confident that we can reduce the number of days that contacts self-isolate from 14 days to 10 days. This was set out in the UK Chief Medical Officers' statement on the self-isolation period on 11 December.
From today, the self-isolation period for close contacts of a positive case of coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed from 14 to 10 days. This change applies to all those who are currently self-isolating including those who commenced self-isolation before today. This means that if you are on the 11th, 12th or 13th day of your current self-isolation period today – you can stop isolating. Any new cases identified for self-isolation will be advised to self-isolate for 10 days.
We have updated our guidance to reflect this change.
The NHS test and trace app will be updated to reflect the change on Wednesday 17 December. Anyone who is, or has been, contacted by the NHS app to self-isolate before 17 December can reduce their isolation period by 3 days. From 17 December the NHS app will tell people to self-isolate for 10 days.
