British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that laws requiring people in England with COVID-19 to self-isolate could be lifted by the end of the month, bringing an end to all domestic coronavirus restrictions.

"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," Johnson told Parliament.

People who test positive now have to isolate for five full days. That rule is to expire on March 24.

Johnson added he plans to present his plan for living with the virus when Parliament returns from a short break on Feb. 21.

Johnson's Conservative government dropped most remaining COVID-19 restrictions last month. Face masks are no longer mandatory anywhere in England, except on London's public transport network. Virus passports for gaining entry to nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home.

The U.K. has seen a drop in both new infections and COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals since early January, when the highly transmissible omicron variant drove daily caseloads to more than 200,000 a day. Current infections average at around 64,000 daily, the lowest recorded since mid-December.

Officials have credited the government's booster jab program with preventing the surge of cases from the omicron variant from causing serious stress to U.K. hospitals. In Britain, 65.4% of those 12 and over have had a booster vaccine, and 84.5% have been fully vaccinated.

The government has said it plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus more like the flu as it becomes endemic in the country.

Beginning Friday, the rules for people travelling to the U.K. will also be relaxed. Fully vaccinated travelers will no longer need to take any coronavirus tests before or after arrival, and those who are not fully jabbed won't have to isolate, although they need to take tests.

Britain still has the second-highest virus death toll in Europe after Russia, with over 159,000 dead in total.