Pingdemic

COVER STORY: COVID-19

Government moves to ‘protect food supply chain’

The UK government has moved to protect the food supply chain from the so called ‘pingdemic’, but stopped short of including shopworkers in the new rules.

Fully vaccinated key workers - including those at food manufacturers and the supply chain - will be able to leave self-isolation in exceptional circumstances to prevent serious disruption to “vital public services”.

The ruling will only apply to workers who are fully vaccinated and only so that they can attend work.

Workers who attend work in these exceptional circumstances will need to take a PCR test as soon as possible followed by daily LFD tests before attending work each day of their self-isolation period. If they test positive or start to show symptoms they must immediately self-isolate and will no longer be able to attend work.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, said: “Throughout this global pandemic, critical workers across the country have been doing the extraordinary by delivering vital services – from policing the streets to keeping our transport links open.

“These individuals form the backbone of many of our most vital services and, as we learn to live with this virus, it’s right we do everything in our power to protect services from disruption by allowing our fully vaccinated critical workers to keep doing their important work.”

CRITICISED

The omission of shopworkers from the new rules has been criticised by some retailers and trade bodies. The Petrol Retailer Association (PRA) said the rules should be extended to forecourt workers.

Gordon Balmer, the Executive Director of the PRA, has said: “We are aware of some fuel supply issues as a result of workers who are part of the supply chain including terminal staff, tanker drivers and forecourt staff who have either contracted Covid-19 or, more often, pinged to self-isolate.”

“Our members have been working with their fuel suppliers to ensure that fuel supplies remain resilient and the PRA has been discussing this issue with government officials to ensure further steps are taken to prevent any shortages. In addition to fuelling essential services and commercial activities, petrol stations are at present experiencing increased demand for fuel due to holidaymakers staycationing around the country.”

In addition, the government said daily contact testing will be rolled out to critical workplaces in the food supply chain so that contacts who would otherwise be lating can instead take daily tests.

PRIORITY TESTING

Priority testing sites have been id with industry for urgent impleme this week, including the largest supe distribution centres, with rollout to h of sites, with up to 500 sites in scop

Javid said: “Throughout this glo demic, workers in our food and drink have overcome enormous challen done everything they can to keep ou stocked and our fridges full.

“As we do everything we can t chains of transmission, daily contact of workers in this vital sector will help to minimise the disruption caused by rising cases in the coming weeks, while ensuring workers are not put at risk.”

In response, the British Retail Consortium’s chief executive Helen Dickinson, said: “We welcome the government’s rapid response to this unfolding ‘pingdemic’, which has impacted shops and distribution centres. Retailers are working closely with government to identify hundreds of key distribution sites that will benefit from the new daily contact testing scheme. It is absolutely vital that government makes up for lost time and rolls out this new scheme as fast as possible.

“Disruption is limited at the moment, and retailers are monitoring the situation closely. Government will need to continue to listen to the concerns of the retail industry in the coming days and must be prepared to take further action if necessary.”

The food supply chain is, however, still under threat from the truck driver shortage. Trade body, the Road Haulage Association, says the UK is currently short of around 100,000 truck drivers. As a result, some retailers – including Tesco – are reportedly offering drivers a £1,000 signing-on fee to tackle the shortage.

The food supply chain is still under threat from the truck driver shortage with some retailers offering drivers a £1,000 signing-on fee