PEOPLE in England should not "throw caution to the winds" as the legal requirement to self-isolate with Covid ends, the Prime Minister has said.

In an interview on the BBC Sunday Morning Show, Boris Johnson said that while Covid was still dangerous for the unvaccinated and the vulnerable, "now is the moment for everybody to get their confidence back".

It comes as the UK Government prepares to confirm controversial plans tomorrow to scrap compulsory self-isolation in England - making it the first country in the world to do so.

Testing provision is already set to be scaled back.

READ MORE: 'It's a gamble' - Should Scotland follow England's lead and scrap mandatory self-isolation?

The Scottish Government is due to publish its new Strategic Framework for managing the virus longer term, but currently has no plans to drop self-isolation rules and ministers have voiced concern about the potential reduction in funding for community testing and free lateral flow devices, which are supplied on a UK-wide basis.

Mr Johnson said: "I don't want people to get completely the wrong idea, I'm not saying you can totally throw caution to the winds - Covid remains dangerous if you're vulnerable and if you're not vaccinated, but we need people to be much more confident and get back to work."

The legal requirement to self-isolate is set to be dropped from next week, as part of a "living with Covid" plan.

Currently, infected individuals must isolate at home for up to 10 days.

Mr Johnson said he wants to address the pandemic with a "vaccine-led approach", shifting the balance away from "banning certain courses of action".

Labour accused the Prime Minister of "declaring victory before the war is over", while some scientists and charities have also questioned the rationale for lifting all remaining restrictions in England while Covid infections are high.

About one in 20 people in England had Covid in the week ending 12 February, compared to one in 25 in Scotland, according to household surveillance by the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS survey, which is based on randomly testing thousands of households across the UK each week and considered the gold standard for gauging prevalence of the virus, is also expected to be slimmed down.

READ MORE: The challenge of finally ending self-isolation 

A member of Sage's modelling subgroup has said he is concerned it is too early for the scrapping of self-isolation rules and free Covid-19 testing expected this week.

Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), told Times Radio that at some point the restrictions would have to be eased but that "the concern now is that we still have relatively high cases".

"The concern, of course, is with removing testing, removing self-isolation, that may cause quite a big change in behaviour."

Mr Tildesley said one of his biggest concerns was support for people in low-income jobs to isolate and that there was a "real concern" that getting rid of the rules would lead to more infections in workplaces.

"If we lose free testing then a lot of people won't test any more and without that data that will put us in a much weaker position," he added.

He said that "in the longer term" we would have to move to a post-Covid phase, but "in the short term we're not out of the woods yet".

The Government should only end self-isolation when case rates are falling, the chair of the Council of the British Medical Association has said.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul told BBC News: "I think the right time is when the first leap of faith is supported.

"You have at the moment more people dying, more people in the hospital, than you had before plan B was introduced.

"It seems a rather odd decision to make. Secondly, we need to see case rates fall down even more remembering that people aren't being restricted at the moment in any severe way at all - people are living normally.

"The second thing is we do need therefore to continue having surveillance because you won't know whether you've reached that point where the infection rates have come down enough until you've had that surveillance."

READ MORE: The truth about claims vaccines 'driving massive infections' in vaccinated Scots 

Labour Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has criticised the Government for plans to end free lateral flow tests.

Speaking to Sky on Trevor Phillips on Sunday, he said: "I'm particularly concerned about the end of free testing. I mean, it's a bit like being to one up with 10 minutes left to play and subbing your best defender.

"We are not out of the woods yet on Covid. It's important that when the Government publishes its plan for living with Covid tomorrow that is a robust plan that enables everyone to live well with Covid.

"There are a number of sensible steps that can and should be taken to ensure that we can live well with Covid without impacting on people's lives, livelihoods and liberties.

"Access to free testing right now, given the prevalence of the virus, given the fact we're still asking people to isolate at home if they have the virus if they're infectious, is a really critical tool. Acting on sick pay would also make an enormous difference."