- Self-isolating: stay at home if you think you have coronavirus
- Stay alert: what you can and cannot do
- What has changed: new measures announced on 22 September
- Staying alert and safe
- How to meet others safely (social distancing)
- How to make a support bubble with another household
- Face coverings: when to wear one and how to make your own
- Shielding: protecting yourself if you're clinically extremely vulnerable
- Unpaid carers: supporting friends and family
Coronavirus (COVID‑19)
There are three simple actions we must all do to keep on protecting each other
- Wash hands keep washing your hands regularly
- Cover face wear a face covering in enclosed spaces
- Make space stay at least 2 metres apart - or 1 metre with a face covering or other precautions
If you have coronavirus symptoms:
- a high temperature
- a new, continuous cough
- a loss of, or change to, your sense of smell or taste
Get a test and stay at home
Find out what support you can get
For example, if you’re out of work, need to get food, or want to take care of your mental health.
Guidance and support
-
How to get tested for coronavirus (COVID-19).
Popular content
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Get coronavirus (COVID-19) support if you’re working less or not working - and find out how to stay safe at work.
Popular content
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Get coronavirus (COVID-19) support for your business or if you’re self-employed, and find out how to keep your business and your employees safe
Popular content
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) information for parents, schools, colleges and universities: closures, exams, learning, health and wellbeing.
Popular content
- Foreign travel advice for each country
- Entering or returning to the UK
- Guidance for travelling abroad
- Countries you can travel from without self-isolating
- Countries exempt from advice against non-essential international travel
- Safer air travel guidance for passengers
- Get support if you’re waiting to return to the UK
- Guidance for visa applicants in the UK and abroad
Testing
- Essential workers: book your test
- Care home workers: book your test
- How to take a swab test and where to send samples
Guidance for healthcare workers and carers
Managing patients with coronavirus (COVID-19)
- How to protect extremely vulnerable people (shielding)
- Using PPE (personal protective equipment)
- COVID-19: guidance for health professionals
- Managing coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths
Support for healthcare workers and volunteers
- How to volunteer
- Join a vaccine research study
- Join a coronavirus detection dog study
- Join a genetic study if you tested positive for coronavirus
- Donate blood plasma if you have tested positive for coronavirus
- How to help others safely
- Guidance for unpaid carers
- Help to increase coronavirus testing capacity
- Help tackle false information spreading online
See specific guidance for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Wash your hands, cover your face, make space
View the video transcript
As winter approaches, we’ll be spending more time indoors. This will increase the risk of coronavirus spreading.
The following reconstructions of everyday environments show why washing hands regularly, wearing a face covering and keeping at least 2m apart is vital in controlling the spread.
Coronavirus can live for more than 24 hours indoors.
You could pick up or pass on the virus by touching a contaminated surface.
Washing your hands with soap and water, or using hand sanitiser, regularly throughout the day will reduce the risk of catching or passing it on.
Coronavirus can be found in tiny droplets coming out of your nose and mouth.
Wearing a face covering over your nose and mouth reduces the spread of droplets carrying the virus. This means if you have it, you’re less likely to pass it on to others.
Larger droplets can land on other people or on surfaces they touch. Spreading the virus through droplets is most likely to happen when you are less than 2m apart.
Smaller droplets called aerosols can stay in the air for some time, especially if there is no ventilation.
So when you are with people not from your household, you must keep at least 2m apart.
The risk of spreading the virus through smaller droplets is much less outdoors, where there is more ventilation.
Wash your hands, cover your face, make space. These are the three most effective ways we can all control the spread of the virus.
Remember if you have any coronavirus symptoms; high temperature, a new continuous cough, or a loss or change in your sense of taste or smell, get a free test by calling 119 or visiting NHS.uk.
Together, we will control the virus and stop the spread.
Don’t forget, Hands, Face, Space.
Announcements
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What has changed – 22 September
Published 22 September 2020
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North East England local restrictions
Published 17 September 2020
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Prime Minister announces new coronavirus (COVID-19) safety rules
Published 9 September 2020