Health workers should be allowed to use their clinical judgement to decide whether to self-isolate following exposure to COVID-19, the British Medical Association has said.

New rules, aimed at ending the “pingdemic”, came into force yesterday allowing double-vaccinated people to carry on with their lives rather than self-isolate when identified as a contact of an infected person.The government is hoping it will reduce absence rates in the NHS, which has been badly affected by the upsurge in infections and improved contact tracing in the last two months.

Yesterday the UK reported 28,438 new cases of infection and 26 new deaths. The number is more than 3,000 more than Monday last week, although significantly less than the July peak of 51,000 infections.The small upsurge in diagnoses is also reflected in numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospital – which reached 5,429 in England yesterday, the largest number since 16 March.

The British Medical Association said “every possible step” must be taken to keep staff and patients safe from the virus.
Dr Penelope Toff, co-chair of its public health committee, said: “Staff who want to self-isolate should not be penalised in any way for doing so. We would like the guidance about returning to work rather than self-isolating to be strengthened so plans for people who work with those vulnerable to more severe effects of COVID-19 and are encouraged to return to work, are thought through extremely carefully, and every possible step must be taken to keep our staff, patients, and the wider public safe.”

She added: “From a healthcare perspective, it’s also clear that risk assessments – as prescribed by law – will continue to be essential, with every aspect of patient interaction and care accounted for in that decision-making process. Both patients and staff need to be reassured that they are being properly protected from infection, which is why, on top of a thorough risk assessment, staff must be given enhanced PPE, including wider provision of FFP3 respirator masks. The root cause of this problem is high circulating levels of COVID-19, and the BMA has strongly warned Government that removing all legal restrictions on mask wearing and social distancing in public settings will exacerbate the problem, and result in greater levels of community infection and more staff being notified to self-isolate. Relaxing rules further for the wider population on August 16th, by allowing double vaccinated people to not self-isolate after coming into contact with a positive case, will only increase the spread.”