London, UK: The government has issued guidance for England this evening (Thursday) that employees providing critical services would be able to keep working and avoid self-isolation if ‘pinged’ or instructed by NHS trace and track.
These workers must be identified as a contact named on a list kept updated by officials. The policy only applies to named workers who are fully vaccinated and it is not a “blanket exemption” for all employees in a sector.
The exemptions – mainly in 16 sectors including essential transport, food supply, emergency services and energy – will allow people identified as contacts by NHS Test and Trace or the phone app to carry on working if their failure to do so would have a “major detrimental impact” or risk national security.
The guidance is intended to operate until August 16, when a wider exemption from self-isolation will apply to fully vaccinated contacts.
The government action has been criticised as being unclear and fraught with difficulty.
Only companies that have received a letter from the government approving their involvement will be able to to let “named” workers avoid self-isolation. Instead, they can petition the government to allow a number of employees to continue working despite having been told to self-isolate – with no guarantee of success.
It raised questions about how quickly approvals could be turned around and how easy it would be to get the green light to take part in the scheme.
The exemption is designed only to apply to a “very small” number of workers “critical” to the national infrastructure.
Downing Street also moved to better protect food supplies by vowing to create up to 500 testing sites to ensure that employees in places such as food distribution centres can keep working.
Companies in food production will be able to apply for exemptions from self-isolation for groups of staff rather than on an individual basis.
