Citizens who test positive for COVID-19 will still be advised to stay at home for at least five days, but are no longer obliged to self-isolate. The routine tracing of infected people’s contacts has also been scrapped.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that the UK is moving “from legal restrictions to personal responsibility" and set out his Conservative government’s strategy for “living with COVID” in the longer term.

The British Medical Association warned that Johnson’s strategy fails to protect the most vulnerable people and those at the highest risk of harm from COVID-19.

England already eased most virus restrictions in January, after infection rates and hospitalisations fell following a surge in late December.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which set their own public health rules, have similarly opened up though at different paces.