The experts also expressed alarm at reports that the “gold standard” ONS infection survey, which gives a weekly estimate of infections in the UK, is to be wound down.

It is a “critical tool for understanding the pandemic”, Sage said, and may have to be replaced with the ZOE symptom-tracker app which has garnered widespread criticism in recent weeks. 

Some £18 billion has already been spent on Test and Trace, according to the National Audit Office’s Covid tracker – the equivalent to a government department’s annual budget. A further £10 billion has been budgeted. 

Much of the money is spent on providing free Covid tests to anyone who wants them.

Last spring around 5,000 people were working at Test and Trace, with more than 2,000 of them being outside consultants whose fees tend to be higher than government officials.

Government ministers are preparing to reduce both Test and Trace’s budget and staffing as part of the Prime Minister’s “living with Covid” plan to be revealed in the week commencing February 21.

Virus entering ‘endemic’ phase

The strategy document, which will outline the Government’s approach to countering Covid in the longer term, will effectively see Mr Johnson announce the end of the pandemic.

As the Covid challenge enters an “endemic” phase, the Government will end legal Covid restrictions, meaning people who get the virus will not be bound to self-isolate.

There will still be government guidance urging them not to go to work or socialise but the emphasis will be on personal responsibility rather than government dictat.

Mr Johnson announced the new approach at Prime Minister’s Questions.

He said: “It is my intention to return on the first day after the half-term recess to present our strategy for living with Covid.
“Provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions – including the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive – a full month early.”

NHS Test and Trace is expected to continue in some form, given monitoring the spread of Covid across the country and the emergence of new variants will still be important.

Weekly update on Covid suggested

One Government official familiar with the latest thinking noted that a weekly update on flu in England is issued, suggesting the approach as a possible model for tracking Covid-19.

The policy of allowing anyone in the country to order free Covid tests, often in the form of boxes of Lateral Flow Tests, is expected to come to an end, given it costs the Treasury billions of pounds a year.

Instead a more limited approach, which could see free tests provided at places of heightened Covid risk such as hospitals and care homes, is likely to be announced.