The daily testing system will cover police and border guards, members of fire and emergency services, and transport and shipping workers – regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. Already on Thursday evening it was announced that approximately 10,000 people would be able to perform tests instead of quarantine. people from the food production and distribution sector, mainly working in food production and processing and in food warehouses.
However, it was generally felt that the change announced on Thursday was not enough to stop the effects of the increasingly paralyzing “pingdemia”. Yes – from the “ping” sound made by the application for detecting infected contacts – the wave of absenteeism from work of people who, due to exposure to coronavirus, are sent through the application to a 10-day quarantine was named.
In the second week of July alone, where the latest data came from, nearly 620,000 such notifications were sent in England and Wales. And for several days, companies have been reporting every day that due to staff shortages, they have to limit production, shorten working hours or close some branches.
From August 16 in England, anyone who is fully vaccinated will no longer have to undergo a 10-day quarantine if they have been exposed to an infected person, but will be able to replace this with daily testing during that time. In Scotland, a similar system will enter into force on August 9, and in Wales on August 7.
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Bartłomiej Niedziński / PAP / Adriana C.
