Yahoo Finance UK faces ‘summer of closures’ as restaurant staff not included in pingdemic exemptions
Hotels, supermarkets and restaurants face a summer of closures as their workers are not exempt from pingdemic, it has been warned.
Industry body UK Hospitality warned the sector was being left with no choice but to work with “one hand tied behind its back”.
UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the industry she represents has been left to “face the consequences” after being missed off the list.
She said: “We now face a summer of venue closures and reduced service, when we should be at a seasonal peak. The sector will do all it can to provide great service, but it will be with one hand tied behind our back.
“Those who are fully vaccinated should be able to test after a ping and, subject to a negative result, carry on with their lives. For those not fully vaccinated two negative tests should be sufficient to return to work.”
It comes after the Government named the critical workers who could be spared of self-isolation if their NHS track and trace app pinged them.
The exemptions were revealed mainly across 16 sectors included transport, food supply, emergency services and energy.
It only applies to fully vaccinated workers.
More than 600,000 people were told to self-isolate last week after being ‘pinged’ by the NHSCovid-19 tracing app, official figures show.
A record 618,903 alerts were sent to users of the app in England and Wales in the week to July 14, telling them they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus.
This is up more than 15% on the previous week when 530,126 people were pinged and marks the highest seven-day total since data was first published in January.
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