UK PM Johnson 'looking at' cutting COVID-19 isolation period

LONDON - Britain is making progress against Omicron and is looking at reducing the isolation period to five days, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, though he cautioned the number of hospitalised COVID-19 cases was rising.

Asked about cutting the isolation period from seven days to five days, he said: "We're looking at that." But he added that the government would follow the science.

"We've got to make sure that we see off Omicron. We're making great progress," Johnson said in a broadcast clip.

"(But) the 18,000 people with COVID currently in hospital... that's massively up, and the numbers are increasing," he said, adding that perhaps 30% of those people had been infected in hospital.