Covid-19: Matt Hancock hopes to scrap isolation for double-jabbed contacts

Plans to ease Covid restrictions in England on 19 July are 'looking good', the prime minister has said. Boris Johnson said that was based on the efficacy of vaccines against identified variants. But he warned there could be a 'rough winter for all sorts of reasons', including a resurgence of flu. It comes as the health secretary said he hoped to exempt fully vaccinated people from the requirement to isolate for 10 days when contact-traced. Asked during on a visit to a laboratory in Hertfordshire whether he could rule out further lockdowns this winter, Mr Johnson said: 'You can never exclude that there will be some new disease, some new horror that we simply haven't budgeted for, or accounted for.