Table of contents

  1. Using this guide
  2. Clinically extremely vulnerable
  3. Coronavirus and COVID-19
  4. Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
  5. Deaths and COVID-19
  6. Furlough
  7. Local lockdowns and restrictions
  8. Lockdown
  9. Long COVID
  10. New variants of the coronavirus
  11. NHS Test and Trace
  12. Outbreak or pandemic
  13. Pre-coronavirus and pre-lockdown
  14. Quarantine
  15. R number
  16. Self Employment Income Support Scheme Grants
  17. Self-isolation
  18. Shielding
  19. Social distancing
  20. Spread
  21. Support bubble
  22. Vaccines and vaccinations 
  23. Waves

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Shielding

Shielding was introduced in the UK in March 2020 at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The shielding guidance advised those most at risk of serious harm from COVID-19 to stay at home to protect themselves. It applied to people, including children, who are clinically extremely vulnerable to developing serious illness if they are exposed to COVID-19 because they have a particular serious underlying health condition.  

Specific shielding guidance for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was published. People were asked to stop shielding in August 2020 and to instead follow the national rules and restrictions. 

Refer to “those who were shielding” and the “shielding guidance”.