Social distancing rules scrapped in hospitals and GP waiting rooms

The new NHS guidance covers ‘all areas’ including emergency departments, ambulances, patient transport services and GP surgeries.

You no longer need to stay socially distant from other people in GP and hospital waiting rooms.

NHS organisations in England have been instructed to ‘return to pre-pandemic physical distancing in all areas’ but you will still be encouraged to wear face masks.

The new guidance covers ‘all areas’ including emergency departments and other hospital settings, ambulances, patient transport services and GP surgeries.

But it states patients and staff should continue to practise good hand and respiratory hygiene.

NHS bosses told local health leaders the service needs to ‘adapt’ to operating with Covid in ‘general circulation’, adding it will likely ‘remain endemic for some time to come’.

In a raft of other measures, the isolation period for Covid patients will be reduced and it will be scrapped altogether for anyone exposed to the virus.

This new infection control guidance comes as the NHS desperately tries to get through the backlog of care exacerbated by the pandemic.

The number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a record 6.2 million.

Covid infections have started to fall in the UK, the latest weekly ONS figures have suggested.

The number of Covid patients in hospital also appears to be stabilising, with levels remaining below previous waves.

But in total more than 170,000 people have died since the outbreak of the virus.

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