The British government announced on Wednesday, the reduction of the isolation period in England from ten to seven days for vaccinated people who became ill with covid-19, in the middle of a new wave of cases caused by the Omicron variant and a few days before Christmas.

According to the government, this measure will allow more people to spend Christmas with their families without running the risk of transmitting the virus.

"Starting this Wednesday, people who have two negative antigen tests performed on the sixth and seventh day after infection will be able to come out of isolation," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, quoted by Lusa.

The rule relief comes at a time when the United Kingdom, one of the most pandemic-affected countries in Europe, with more than 147,000 deaths associated with covid-19 disease, is facing a surge of cases due to the Omicron variant, already characterized as much more transmissible compared to other variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

In the last five days, the daily average of infections has risen sharply to 90,000 cases in the UK, but average hospitalizations have remained stable at around 7500.

Faced with "uncertainty" about the severity of the Omicron variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Tuesday that he would not impose further containment measures until Christmas, although he called for "caution," including wearing masks indoors and performing rapid tests before contacts with vulnerable people.

"Given the continuing uncertainty about several things - the severity of Omicron, the uncertainty about the hospitalization rate or the impact of the vaccination program and booster doses, we do not think today that there is sufficient evidence to justify any tougher measures before Christmas," Boris Johnson justified.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Sajid Javid also revealed on Wednesday the signing of two new contracts with pharmaceutical companies Merck and Pfizer for the purchase of millions of tablet antiviral drugs against covid-19.