Millions of people considered extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 will not longer be subject to shielding advice from April 1, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed.
Nearly four million vulnerable people across the UK have been shielding for months as the second wave of the pandemic raged.
The Health Secretary also told MPs on Thursday that the rate of hospitalisations has halved in the past 16 days.
“Now, there are 7,218 people in hospital with Covid across the UK – down from a peak of almost 40,000 just seven weeks ago", he said.
“The rate of hospitalisation has halved in just past the 16 days. And thankfully the rate at which people are dying has fallen by a third in the last week.”
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Hancock said a "further £6.6 billion of funding" has been guaranteed for the first half of the 2021/22 financial year, adding: "This money is in addition to £3 billion committed at the spending review last November to help the NHS meet the additional costs of Covid and critically starting the work on the elective recovery ahead.
"Due to the pandemic, the waiting list for elective treatment in January was almost 4.6 million and 304,000 people are waiting more than a year for an operation of diagnostic."
Mr Hancock said the number of people waiting more than a year pre-pandemic was 1,600.
