Australia has said it will end mandatory Covid isolation requirements from next month, with a chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, saying the emergency phase of its response was probably over.

Australia has said it will end mandatory Covid isolation requirements from next month, with a chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, saying the emergency phase of its response was probably over.

Currently, anyone who tests positive for the virus must isolate for five days, but that will end on 14 October.

At times nicknamed Fortress Australia, the country has had some of the strictest restrictions in the world since the pandemic began.

Kelly however said the decision does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished.