Hospitality bosses rage that their staff will be kept in pingdemic isolation until August 16

DESPAIRING landlords and nightclub bosses are up in arms their staff will have to keep isolating when pinged until August 16.

Hospitality has not been named as a critical sector viable for exemption or earmarked for a "test and release" scheme like the food supply industry.

Pubs and bars crippled by staffing shortages are urging ministers to broaden the exemption scheme so more venues don't go to the wall.

Sacha Lord, Night Time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester, said: "Every day, hospitality venues across Greater Manchester are being forced to close due to staff being asked to isolate, despite those same employees testing negative continuously across the ten day quarantine period.

"From a business and economic perspective, we cannot wait until the 16 August to resolve these issues and I urge the Government to introduce wide scale daily testing or a test-to-release system."

Alastair Kerr, from the Campaign for Pubs, said the industry is not "out of the woods yet" and the pingdemic would only worsen the situation.

He told The Sun: "A lot of venues aren't being able to open at full capacity - they're having to enforce their own restrictions - or worse not open at all because of staffing shortages in the pingdemic."

The seasoned landlord added that "ideally there would be no restrictions and pubs could go back to trading as they were pre-pandemic".

The Government has not published a list of essential workers - like it did in the first lockdown - but identified vital industries such as border force and transport.

Bosses will have to apply to Government departments on a case by case basis for permission for specific workers to be exempt.

The news was welcomed by industries facing major staff shortages, with more than 618,903 Brits 'pinged' by the NHS Covid-19 app in just one week.

George Eustice said today that the exemption from self-isolation would not be extended to the hospitality industry.

And he made clear that no other sectors are being considered to dodge self-isolation before August 16.

The Environment Secretary told Sky News this morning: "The reason we've made a special exception for food is for very obvious reasons - we need to make sure that we maintain our food supply, we will never take risks with our food supply.

"When it comes to other sectors, yes, of course, the fact that they are also carrying high absence levels is causing some stress for them and making it more difficult.

EXEMPTION LIST

"You also have to bear in mind why we're doing this and we are trying to still just dampen the pace and the velocity at which this infection is spreading because we have to keep a very close eye on those hospitalisations."

He added: "We know that if people are double jabbed then between a 92 per cent and 96 per cent reduction in hospitalisations is what we can expect.

"But there will still be some hospitalisations and certainly still some deaths and we just need to make sure that we don't have this growing too quickly. That's the aim of this.

"I know it's frustrating for everybody but we do want to try to just dampen the curve of this infection until it turns and things start to go in the other direction.

"And then of course, we can move to a different system for everyone."

The updated guidance yesterday said "in the small number of situations where the self-isolation of close contacts would result in serious disruption to critical services, a limited number of named workers may be able to leave self-isolation under specific controls for the purpose of undertaking critical work only".

The government's guidance states that employers who feel their workers need to be exempt from self-isolation should contact the relevant government department for their sector.

The sectors included in the exemption are:

• energy
• civil nuclear
• digital infrastructure
• food production and supply
• waste
• water
• veterinary medicines
• essential chemicals
• essential transport
• medicine
• medical devices
• clinical consumable supplies
• emergency services
• border control
• essential defence outputs
• local government

They are also asked to provide information on the number of people who they want to leave self-isolation, the jobs they do and the impact that self-isolation would have on their business.

If a worker is deemed to meet the criteria then their employer will get a letter from the government telling them what measures they now need to follow.

Up to 10,000 workers are expected to qualify for the exemption scheme.

Separate arrangements are in place for frontline health and care staff.

In response to the announcement, the British Chambers of Commerce said many businesses "face difficult weeks ahead" despite the self-isolation exemptions.

Hannah Essex, co-executive director of the BCC, said: “While the announcement of a process which may exempt select critical workers from self-isolation in England will be a relief to some businesses, it will leave many more still facing critical staff shortages and lost revenue as the number of people being asked to isolate remains high.  

“Nearly half of the businesses we surveyed this week have had staff either off sick with Covid or self-isolating in the past two weeks.

PINGDEMIC CHAOS

"Businesses want to play their part in stopping the spread of the virus while at the same time striving to revive their business after 16 months of disruption and closures."

In his Freedom Day speech, Boris Johnson name-checked a handful of industries in line for exemption, if the workers have been double-jabbed.

They included food and water supply, power supply, medicines, public transport, border force and the armed forces.

Fully vaccinated NHS workers have already been exempt to stop hospitals coming to a standstill.

Isolation for double-jabbed Brits who are pinged or contacted by NHS Test and Trace will end on August 16.

But this week, increasing numbers of workers are being "pinged" by the NHS Covid app creating staff shortages in stores and factories producing food.

Some supermarkets last night warned the PM he has just 48 hours to fix the pingdemic or customers could face bare shelves for weeks.

Iceland said it has closed "a number of stores" after 1,000 workers - four per cent of its workforce - forced to self-isolate after being pinged.

Mr Kwarteng admitted the Government was "concerned" by photos of bare shelves in supermarkets, but said it wasn't a "universal" problem.

He told BBC Radio 4: "Shoppers shouldn’t be panicking... I’m not panicking."