Key workers will not join the daily covid tests scheme in England

A scheme for the workers to avoid the Covid self-isolation in England has faced much criticism. It failed to go far enough. The police, transport, border force, and freight staff will now be able to join the daily covid tests scheme. They will get the test regardless of whether they have their vaccination or not.

It is follows the announcement that up to 10000 supermarket depot and the food factory workers will also become eligible. The warnings of staff shortages have come to several sectors in recent days.

The police forces, local authorities, transport providers, and the supermarkets were among those who are calling for a review of the self-isolation rules. They want to avoid the shutdowns or the skeleton of the operations.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said that: “Daily testing will keep our frontline teams safe while they continue to serve the public and communities across our country.”

These latest changes are coming ahead of a planned overhaul for the self-isolation rules from 16 august in England. All those who are already having their vaccination would avoid their isolation and rather carry out the daily covid tests.

This decision comes as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has joined the leading business figures. He is urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to bring his date forward and end this self-isolation.

They have called for more testing sites to allow those whom the NHS Covid-19 app has pinged for testing negative for the virus. They can keep working. The country told a number of people to isolate them for 10 days after coming close to a COVID-19 patient.

Almost 608000 contact tracing alerts have been sent from the NHS Covid -19 app this week. The daily test scheme is meaningful to the eligible workers who are already having the alert from the app. They will be able to continue to work if they get tested negative each day.

On Friday evening, the government announced that an expected initial 200 new testing sites will now be available. It will help to screen the eligible ones. The critical workers in the health food and transport sectors can also apply for the exemption from the left isolation in Scotland.

A scheme in England is allowing employers to apply in advance for the exemptions. It will also be for fully vaccinating critical workers in a small number of industries. It is not clear when the new testing site will be available. The higher number of notifications sent is leading to the shortages of some of the products in the supermarkets. Also, it is leading to the staffing problem for the frontline services.

Health secretary Sajid Javid said that the daily contact testing would help to minimize the disruption due to the rising cases in the upcoming weeks.

Under the current rules of isolation in England, anyone who is getting traced with close contact of a positive case must be isolated for 10 days. The change of the rules will also mean that the under-18s will no longer need to self-isolate due to contact traces. A similar rule will come into effect in Scotland from 9th August and 7th August in Scotland.

Credits: BBC