NHS bosses were today given the green light to relax Covid-controlling restrictions in hospitals to boost efforts in clearing the record backlog.
Officials dropped guidance on social distancing, which the health service adopted at the start of the pandemic in an effort to keep patients safe.
Social distancing can be reduced to 1m in some low-risk areas of hospitals, which no longer need to be deep-cleaned between uninfected patients.
And some patients who are fully-vaccinated and asymptomatic no longer need to test negative on a PCR and self-isolate for three days, as long as they lateral flow says they are free of the virus on the day of their procedure
The guidance, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) — which replaced the disbanded PHE — is already being followed in some hospitals.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid claimed the recommendation is only possible because of the 'phenomenal vaccination campaign'.
He said: 'We can now safely begin to relieve some of the most stringent infection control where they are no longer necessary to benefit patients and ease the burden on hardworking NHS staff.'
NHS hospitals are under record pressure after the pandemic drastically interrupted patient care.
The pandemic-fuelled backlog for routine operations hit 5.6million at the end of July. The figure is the highest figure ever recorded, is set to keep rising and will take years to clear.
The Prime Minister promised an extra £10bn a year for the NHS in a tax raid aimed at helping to clear the mammoth waiting list.
This came on top of a previously announced £5.4billion cash boost.
The cash will go towards millions more checks, scans and procedures and boosting NHS capacity for routine operations.
The number of patients waiting for routine hospital treatment hit 5.6million in July, the highest figure since records began in 2007. And health chiefs have warned the backlog is going to get much worse before it gets better, with projections that it could soar up to 13million by the end of the year if no action is taken
Patients forced to wait more than 18 weeks for routine surgery - the maximum time someone should wait under the NHS's own rules - reached 1.7million in July, the highest level in four months
Some 293,000 people had been waiting more than a year for treatment on the NHS by July this year, figures showed. This was down slightly on last month when there were 304,803 people on the list, but still almost three times the same levels last year. The list has surged after the pandemic forced hospitals to turn over whole wards to fighting the virus
The UK Health Security Agency, which published the new advice, says less stringent measures can be implemented in hospitals because because an increasing proportion of the population is vaccinated and more is known about how the virus can be contained
UKHSA said the 'pragmatic changes' will ease Covid-related pressures on hospitals in the coming months as the country learns to live with the virus.
It said social distancing can be dropped from 2m to 1m in hospitals where patient access can be controlled, such as in wards but not A&E, mirroring a message dished out to households by No10 in June.
A minimum 1m distance is already recommended by the WHO in healthcare settings, although it says this should be increased 'whenever feasible'.
And under the relaxation of measures, some patients will no longer need to show a negative PCR test or isolate for three days before getting elective procedures, such as hip and knee operations.
Only patients deemed at low-risk, who are fully-vaccinated, asymptomatic and have tested negative from a lateral flow test on the day of their operation, will be exempt.
