Mandatory COVID isolation to be scrapped

Mandatory COVID isolation will come to an end for majority of Australians from October 14.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement following a National Cabinet meeting on Friday morning.

The move means people with COVID-19 will no longer have to legally isolate for five-days at home.

The isolation period does still apply to those who work in vulnerable settings including hospital and aged care workers.

The pandemic leave payment will also come to an end on October 14, except for those who work in high-risk settings.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said mandatory isolation is no longer necessary. 

"We are in a very low community transmission phase of the pandemic here in Australia. It does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished," he said. 

"We will almost certainly see future peaks of the virus into the future, as we have seen earlier in this year.

"However, at the moment, we have very low rates of both cases, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions, aged-care outbreaks and various other measures that we've been following very closely in our weekly open report." 

People who contract COVID-19 are still urged to stay at home until they have no symptoms.