Do I need to isolate when I get Covid and can I still get a free test?

The Prime Minister has announced the next stages of the government's Covid plan "living with covid" which includes the easing of remaining rules and regulations as well as safety measures.

Among these are plans affecting free Covid tests and what an individual should do if they test positive for the virus.

The legal requirement for people in England to self-isolate if they test positive will end from this Thursday, February 24.

Boris Johnson told MPs: “First, we will remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law.

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“From this Thursday, February 24, we will end the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test and so we will also end self-isolation support payments, although Covid provisions for statutory sick pay can still be claimed for a further month.

“We will end routine contact tracing and no longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those under 18 to test daily for seven days.”

Meanwhile, free Covid tests will end on April 1 - therefore, from now and between then you can still receive free universal testing.

Boris Johnson told MPs: “Until April 1 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.”

He added: “It’s only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now if anything below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions and it’s only because we know Omicron is less severe that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we’ve been doing is much less important and much less valuable in preventing serious illness.

The “biggest testing programme