Experts who have tested positive for the coronavirus and spent two weeks in isolation should be given a “freedom pass” to do whatever they want, an expert said.

Sir John Bell, a reggae professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the government’s Vaccine Task Force, said the pass would allow people to “do whatever you want for three months.”

He told MPs that there needed to be an ‘empowerment strategy’ to encourage more people to take the test.

Professor Bell added: ‘We live in a world where our society needs to be backed up again and we need a framework to do that and at the moment we don’t have that framework because the whole philosophy is “let’s beat them with a stick” Rather “let’s give them a carrot” ‘

A woman uses a swab to test for coronavirus at the Liverpool Tennis Center on November 6, 2020.

Professor Bell added that lateral flow tests, which last less than an hour, could be performed by people ‘every other day’.

The idea of ​​a pass that shows that someone has been infected has been raised several times, including by ministers.

NHS Test and Trace Chairman Barnes Harding has indicated that work is being done to give people the opportunity to do ‘more’ if there is natural or vaccine-acquired immunity.

That means the NHS Covid-19 application may be allowed to record whether anyone has the vaccine, he told a joint session of the Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees.

Sir John Bell, a reggae professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the government’s Vaccine Task Force (pictured), said the pass would allow people to “do whatever you want for three months.”

Professor Bell added: ‘If they test negative, you can get a few days of freedom because you know they are not infected.

‘If they are in contact, you check them out the next day, let them leave about their business in the real world, so there are benefits for everyone from this.

‘Negatives do better, positives do better and people will want to test because it’s an opportunity to get back to normal life.’

Professor Bell further warned that people who know the test and their friends may be told to self-isolate, it was ‘hugely disruptive’ to get an test.

He said if anyone doesn’t want to test, it could be the end of a mass testing program like Liverpool’s pilot.