The government has said social care workers can ignore advice to self-isolate if they are exposed to someone with Covid-19.

Double-vaccinated social care and health staff in England who have been told to self-isolate will be permitted to work “if isolation would be detrimental to patient care”.

This will include staff who have been contacted as a close contact of a case of COVID-19 by NHS Test and Trace, or advised to self-isolate by the NHS Covid-19 app.

However exposed staff will only be allowed to work after having a negative PCR test and also taking daily negative lateral flow tests for a minimum of seven days, and up to 10 days or completion of the identified self-isolation period. They will also be prevented from working with “clinically extremely vulnerable people”.

Health secretary Sajid Javid said: “As we learn to live with this virus, it’s important that we ensure frontline staff can keep providing the best possible care and support to people up and down the country.

“The government has backed healthcare services at every turn through this global pandemic and these new rules will fortify our collective defences against this awful virus, by allowing fully vaccinated frontline NHS and social care staff to continue to work when needed.”