It's the last day of shielding for the clinically vulnerable in Norfolk and Suffolk
It's changing in line with the government's roadmap out of lockdown.
Last updated 31st Mar 2021
Today is the last day more than 3.7 million vulnerable people in England and Wales are being advised to shield from coronavirus.
From tomorrow, anyone who has had to shield will be able to follow national restrictions, but are still advised to take extra precautions to keep themselves safe from COVID-19.
Jenny is from Ipswich - she has Parkinsons and has spent much of the last year shielding with her husband:
"I feel restricted, you think oh I'd like to do something and then you don't, because you can't and I find that quite horrible.
You've got all these restrictions where you have to be apart from each other and it is difficult when you're in a wheelchair and you want to look at something in the shops, people are not very thoughtful"
Earlier this month, Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said: “With the prevalence of the virus in the community continuing to decrease, now is the right time for people to start thinking about easing up on these more rigid guidelines.
“If you have been shielding, we strongly urge you to take extra precautions following April 1 to keep yourself as safe as possible, such as continuing to observe social distancing and working from home.
“We will continue to monitor all of the evidence and adjust this advice should there be any changes in infection rates.”
Who had to shield?
An initial list of 2.2 million clinically extremely vulnerable people were advised to take the measures to avoid potential infection, and 1.7 million more were added to the list in February.
The first list included people with single risk factors such as those with various cancers, people on immunosuppression drugs or those with severe respiratory conditions.
But as the pandemic has progressed, medics found that some people are at higher risk than others because they have multiple risk factors.