Johnson backs emergency plan to avoid disruption to food supplies

Boris Johnson has backed an emergency plan to avoid disruption of UK food supplies caused by Covid-related staff shortages, as the prime minister struggled to contain the economic chaos caused by the pandemic.

Ministers were on Thursday putting together the final details of a package to exempt “critical” workers from self-quarantine rules, after a record 618,913 people were “pinged” in the week to July 15 and asked to self-isolate.

According to people with knowledge of a call between retail executives and government officials, a form of “test to release” scheme was being drawn up to avoid the need for 10 full days of quarantine following an alert from the Covid-19 NHS app.

But it was expected to be limited to those in warehouse and distribution roles, rather than those on the shop floor, leading some executives to immediately decry it as insufficient.

Downing Street confirmed on Thursday that workers in certain sectors would be allowed to carry on working, even if they had been in close contact with someone with the virus.

The plan was originally announced on Monday but Downing Street was still trying to nail down the details on Thursday evening.

Tony Danker, CBI chief executive, said: “The current approach to self-isolation is closing down the economy rather than opening it up. Businesses have exhausted their contingency plans and are at risk of grinding to a halt in the next few weeks.”

But Johnson this week called self-isolation “one of the only shots we have left in the locker” to stop the virus exploding out of control following his decision to remove most remaining Covid restrictions on July 19.

Johnson has so far defied pressure from business to bring forward from August 16 the proposed date at which double-jabbed adults can avoid self-isolation if “pinged” by the Covid-19 app.

Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary, said the self-isolation rule should be scrapped immediately for people who had been double jabbed, warning: “Otherwise we risk losing social consent.”

Ministers are already preparing the ground for the reintroduction of Covid restrictions in the autumn, amid fears that the third wave will continue into September when schools return.

Nadhim Zahawi, vaccines minister, told MPs that compulsory Covid passports could be extended from nightclubs to venues including sports venues, business events and concerts to prove that attendees were fully vaccinated.

The government reserved the right to mandate their use for “crowded unstructured indoor settings, large unstructured outdoor settings and, of course, very large events such as . . . spectator sports”.

Labour has said it would oppose compulsory Covid passports — as would some Tory MPs. Steve Baker, former minister, said he would not attend the Conservative conference if attendees were forced to prove their vaccine status.

However ministers admit the threat of widespread use of Covid passports is partly intended to persuade 3m 18 to 30-year-olds to get jabbed — a policy that has been successful in France. But some ministers hope they will not have to carry through with the threat. “They would love it if they didn’t have to do it,” said one government official.

Meanwhile the disruption caused by the third Covid-19 wave continued. Make UK, an industry group, released a survey showing that 13 per cent of companies had stopped production. A quarter said at least 10 per cent of staff were isolating.

Andrew Selley at Bidfood, a food wholesaler, told the BBC that it was asking staff who were “pinged” to take a PCR test and to return to work if it was negative, rather than isolating. Daily lateral flow tests would follow.

Govia, which runs about a quarter of all passenger journeys in the UK, will from Monday reduce weekday services on five routes across the Thameslink and Southern franchises. Bin collections and child care are among areas facing disruption.

The latest infection data, however, showed that the UK recorded a dip in new cases for the first time since the onset of the third wave. A further 39,906 cases were reported on Thursday, down from 48,553 on the same day last week. But deaths continue to climb, with 84 deaths reported on Thursday, compared with 63 deaths on the same day last week. 

Oliver Johnson, director of the Institute for Statistical Science at Bristol university warned that, as with falls in case numbers during September last year before the second wave, the dip could be a “false dawn”. 

He speculated it could be driven by a “limited availability of PCR tests or a fall in lateral flow testing in schools ahead of the summer holidays”. He added that falling cases could reflect a drop in social mixing after a “high point” around the Euro 2020 finals in England.