Millions of shielded people can meet one friend or family member from Monday
People forced to “shield” themselves during lockdown can go outside with family or exercise with a friend from Monday after Boris Johnson eased the restrictions they have been living under.
Around 2.2 million of the most medically vulnerable in society have had to stay indoors for the past 10 weeks and avoid seeing anyone they do not live with, but Mr Johnson said their “patience and sacrifice” could now be rewarded.
Anyone who lives with family members can go outside with them from Monday as long as they are careful to follow social distancing guidelines.
Those who live alone - many of whom have had no face-to-face contact since March - can meet outside with one other person from another household as long as they stay two metres apart.
It comes after Government scientists estimate the average chance of someone catching the virus to have fallen from 1 in 40 to 1 in 1,000.
Mr Johnson said: “I want to thank everyone who has followed the shielding guidance – it is because of your patience and sacrifice that thousands of lives have been saved.
“I do not underestimate just how difficult it has been for you, staying at home for the last 10 weeks, and I want to pay tribute to your resilience.
“I will do what I can, in line with the scientific advice, to continue making life easier for you over the coming weeks and months.”
The advice to people in the shielded group will be reviewed again later this month, Mr Johnson said, as he paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who have helped the vulnerable by delivering medicines or shopping or simply checking in on people living alone.
Support for shielded people, including deliveries of food parcels, will continue.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said the “commitment” of people forced to shield in their homes had been “nothing short of phenomenal”.
People in the shielded category remain at risk, Mr Johnson said, and are advised to leave the house only once a day. They should not go to work or the shops and should avoid crowded places where they cannot social distance.
People who have been told to shield themselves include people being treated for cancer, those with severe respiratory conditions such as cystic fibrosis and organ transplant recipients.
Full details of the easing of restrictions for the shielded will be announced in today’s Downing Street press conference by the Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick.
He said: “Those shielding from coronavirus have made huge sacrifices over recent months to protect both themselves and the NHS - they deserve our thanks and our support for their efforts.
"Incidence rates of coronavirus are now significantly lower than before these measures were put in place.
“That’s why we are focused on finding the right balance between continuing to protect those at the greatest clinical risk, whilst easing restrictions on their daily lives to make the difficult situation more bearable - particularly enabling the contact with loved ones they and we all seek.”
The programme of shielding for extremely vulnerable patients has become increasingly chaotic in recent weeks, with some removed from the at-risk list without the knowledge of their GP.
Charities and MPs expressed alarm earlier this week when it emerged individuals suffering from symptoms such as brittle asthma or who had been treated for certain types of cancer received a text message saying they were no longer required to isolate.
The Government said patients should have been contacted by their doctors in advance, but many claimed the text was the first communication they received.
Samantha Bruce, a 35-year-old severe asthma sufferer, told the BBC she had called her GP to confirm the validity of the text - but he “didn’t have a clue” why she had been culled from the programme.
The heads of almost 50 charities separately wrote to ministers saying that the more than two million people who had been left isolated for months were feeling “confused, frustrated and forgotten”.
The charities said in a letter to the Cabinet Office that the impact of the enforced captivity on the mental health of vulnerable people was particularly concerning.
Steven McIntosh, Macmillan Cancer Support policy director, said: "It's simply not acceptable that they just get a message that they are going to have to continue to do this for some time longer, they need to understand what that means and what support is available.”
The vulnerable section of the population were initially told their shielding would last for 12 weeks - but this week complained the Government had offered them no timeframe since.
