Covid: People urged to wear masks and stay at home if unwell as pressure on NHS mounts

Public face coverings have not been mandatory in UK for months – and remain that way, stresses No 10

People have been urged to wear face coverings and remain at home if feeling unwell, as an already crisis-stricken NHS faces down multiple waves of winter illnesses.

With children returning to school at a time when high levels of flu, Covid-19 and scarlet fever are all being reported, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued fresh guidance in a bid to minimise the diseases’ spread.

Parents have been urged to keep children at home if they are unwell and have a fever, with adults told to only go out if necessary and wear face coverings if they are ill and avoid visiting vulnerable people.

While transport secretary Mark Harper said the advice was “very sensible”, Downing Street insisted that such guidance was “pretty longstanding”, stressing that it was “not mandatory” and remained a far cry from ministers “telling people what to do” at the height of the pandemic.

The government has also reintroduced travel bans for those testing positive for Covid-19 in China from 5 January amid a mass outbreak there.

It comes as pressure on the NHS continues to grow, but Rishi Sunak said he was “confident” the NHS has the funding it needs despite accusations from senior doctors his government is in denial about the scale of the crisis in the health service.

No 10 admitted that services were suffering an “unprecedented challenge” this winter and that some patients were finding it “very difficult” to access care. Last week The Independent revealed internal NHS figures suggesting delays in A&E departments were linked to the deaths of up to 500 people each week.

While there has been no legal requirement for the public to wear face coverings to combat Covid in England since July 2021, such guidance has remained intermittently, such as on public transport and in supermarkets, with symptomatic people also advised to remain at home where possible.

In “back-to-school advice” issued on Monday, the UKHSA warned that flu and Covid are currently “circulating at high levels” while large numbers of scarlet fever continue to be reported.

“It’s important to minimise the spread of infection in schools and other education and childcare settings as much as possible,” said UKHSA chief medical adviser Professor Susan Hopkins. “If your child is unwell and has a fever, they should stay home from school or nursery until they feel better and the fever has resolved.”

Prof Hopkins added: “Adults should also try to stay home when unwell and if you do have to go out, wear a face covering. When unwell don’t visit healthcare settings or visit vulnerable people unless urgent.”

According to the most recent UKHSA data, published on 22 December, Covid and flu hospital admissions were both increasing, and NHS Confederation chief Matthew Taylor said on Tuesday that cases did not appear to have peaked, telling BBC Breakfast: “January is normally the hardest month for the health service.”

Meanwhile, health authorities have warned that reports of scarlet fever have reached “exceptional levels”, with the more serious invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS) disease also being reported more frequently than usual – with 25 deaths recorded in children under 18 years old in England.

Dr Hopkins said that teaching children to practice “regular handwashing at home with soap and warm water” and “catching coughs and sneezes in tissues then binning them”, and getting flu vaccines if eligible, were also simple ways of countering disease.

“We have seen good uptake in older age groups, but vaccination among young children remains low”, she said. “Flu can be very unpleasant and in some cases can lead to more serious illness. Getting your child vaccinated protects them and others they come into contact with, and it's still not too late.”

Covid rules - do I need to wear a face mask?

Asked about the UKHSA guidance, Downing Street said: “Obviously that’s advice they put out. I think that is pretty longstanding advice. It remains health advice to the public – it is not mandatory. People need their judgment. Certainly, people will continue to use their good sense.”

Questioned by reporters whether it was really “longstanding” advice for people to wear face coverings if battling a cold, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “That’s not what the advice says. What you’ll see is, as has often been the case, if people are ill, they are advised to stay at home.”

He added: “This is advice from UKHSA rather than government ministers telling people what to do, as we saw during the height of the pandemic before the emergence of vaccines.”

Acknowledging the “unprecedented” challenges facing the NHS, No 10 insisted that the prime minister is “confident” the NHS has the funding it needs – despite health leaders urging him to reopen pay talks with unions, warning the “last thing” the health service needs is four days of strikes in January.

But Dr Ian Higginson, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, criticised the “remarkable lack” of “meaningful engagement” from political leaders, telling Times Radio: “There seems to be almost a battle of machismo and denial going on.

The college has warned that between 300 and 500 people a week are dying as a result of delays in emergency care – numbers NHS England insists it does not recognise.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the presidents of the Society for Acute Medicine and Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh said they had “never been more concerned about standards of acute medical care across hospitals in the UK than we are now”.