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Key Workers Must Still Self-Isolate When Not Working

by Michael Curzon
23 July 2021 11:29 PM

A small list of key workers have been made exempt from self-isolation rules amid reports of food shortages due to the “pingdemic“. Staff in the hospitality and retail sectors have, however, been told they must still stay at home if they are ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid app, despite their industries taking a battering from strict quarantine rules. To make matters even more confusing, the Government has announced that exempt key workers do have to self-isolate when they are not on shift! The Times has the story.

Ministers announced last night that emergency measures to protect food supplies will see thousands of workers in critical areas such as supermarket depots and food manufacturing avoid the need to self-isolate if ‘pinged’ or contacted by a Test and Trace official. …

The same exemptions were made for frontline NHS and social care staff earlier this week, with isolation rules being replaced by regular testing.

However, the Government has confirmed that outside work, staff will remain under a duty to self-isolate and should not otherwise leave their homes.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “Participants in daily Covid testing will be exempt from self-isolation to undertake work or essential activities only.”

The “essential activities” exemption is slightly wider than normal self-isolation rules, with workers able to exercise in an outdoor space, buy food if no one else can do it for them, and use public transport “for essential trips”.

[Environment Secretary George] Eustice has suggested that the Government could delay the planned August 16th lifting of all self-isolation rules for double-vaccinated people, saying the Government had only announced the date to give “some kind of indication” of when rules might change. He said that the date could still move “in either direction”.

Tory backbench MPs have been pushing to bring the ending of restrictions forward to avoid further disruption to the economy.

Jeremy Hunt, the former Health Secretary, said the Government risked “losing social consent” for isolation if it did not immediately bring forward the relaxation of quarantine rules for the fully vaccinated.

This was echoed by Greg Clark, the former Business Secretary who is Chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

The Conservative MP told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “We know that on August 16th a new system will come in, in which you can take a test if you’re named as a contact and only isolate if you’re positive – I don’t see why we can’t begin that now on July 23th rather than wait.” …

The new exemption rules have already caused confusion, with businesses saying they have not been given enough detail of who might be eligible for exemptions or how.

Nick Allen, Chief Executive of the British Meat Processing Association, said: “There needs to be recognition this is a 24/7 supply chain, and you can’t wait to Monday to understand who’s going to be included for this and how it’s going to work – I’ve been inundated with questions from members about how it’s going to work that I just can’t answer at the moment.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) has also urged ministers to clarify who may qualify for exemption from self-isolation. …

Bin collections appeared to be the worst affected, but road repairs, leisure facilities and park maintenance could also be hit, the LGA said.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: NHS AppPingdemicSelf-IsolationWork

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45 Comments
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A Heretic
A Heretic
4 years ago

what a farce. a disease so deadly we need a track and trace system but apparently it’s fine to be spreading it around with everyone you come into contact with at work.

25
0
Paul B
Paul B
4 years ago

I can’t breathe, hilarious!

Can’t wait to see how many uninstallations of the app there are tomorrow….

18
0
HaylingDave
HaylingDave
4 years ago

Jesus, the arrogance to say to someone: “well, you have no symptoms, but you’re sick and probably spreading a deadly disease so you have to stay home … unless you’re going to work, then you HAVE to go to work, but you can’t do anything else outside of work.”

I’d say a resounding “fuck you.” Either I go about my day including work and leisure normally, or I stay home entirely. Fuck you for trying to control my life in such a finite, micro manner. Go to hell!

58
0
X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  HaylingDave

“well, you have no symptoms, but you’re sick and probably spreading a deadly disease so you have to stay home … unless you’re going to work, then you HAVE to go to work, but you can’t do anything else outside of work.”

Everyone has been overlooking the obvious: A bleedin’ ex-Python has been writing their scripts for them!

10
0
chris c
chris c
4 years ago
Reply to  X - In Search of Space

“It’s an ex-virus”

2
0
CovidiousAlbion
CovidiousAlbion
4 years ago
Reply to  HaylingDave

That’s the pilot for all non-elite people. Never mind; it won’t be long before financial constraints leave us no option to do anything other than work and eat.

0
0
rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  HaylingDave

It just reveals the true nature of state as a shitty parasite who, when push comes to shove, is going to make you work for them with a gun against your head. Unfortunately, the slave drivers tend to have all the guns (and it has always been so). During times of peace an illusion of “citizen-friendly state” is built, but crises unmask the true mentality of those people.

1
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago

Attention:

I am C1984 positive when I am on my tea-break.

Suck it Up.

12
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
4 years ago

This nonsense is like the joke about the man looking under a street light for keys he dropped elsewhere, because “this is where the light is”.

We isolate everyone! Oh, except for those whom we can’t because then everyone would starve. They’re somewhere out in the dark where we aren’t looking.

19
0
HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
4 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

So true!

1
0
Annie
Annie
4 years ago

OK, Covvie sheeples..
Would you rather be saaaaaaaafe, or starve?
Saaaaaafe doesn’t look quite as attractive now, does it?
Ping stings.

19
0
HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

“Saaaaaafe” – that’s exactly how it’s been bleated over the last 18 months! I said earlier this week that the sheepies might start to stir when they can’t get all their food and booze at the supermarket, or their petrol, or their Deliveroo, or their bins emptied, or their Amazon Prime delivered next day….

6
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
4 years ago

Deleted.

Last edited 4 years ago by Fingerache Philip
4
0
scepticScot
scepticScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

Even better … NEVER installed! 😊

11
0
HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
4 years ago
Reply to  scepticScot

Even better, better…my old Nokia can’t!

6
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
4 years ago

To misquote Orwell: “Some key workers are more key worker than other key workers”.

9
0
SweetBabyCheeses
SweetBabyCheeses
4 years ago

How on earth is this going to improve compliance? Is just some underhand way of employers getting you to disclose whether you’ve had “vaccination”?

Scenario 1. No boss I’ve not received the experimental gene therapy so I’ll just have paid two weeks off thanks.

Scenario 2. Yes boss I’ve been double jabbed well done me so now I can shove a swab up my nose and down my throat every day for the privilege of being allowed to work and come and serve my masters but I promise I won’t also do anything fun or that makes my life worthwhile as that’s dangerous.

Maybe the sheep really are that dumb?

30
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
4 years ago
Reply to  SweetBabyCheeses

The sort of people who are (still) using the app are in clearly the types who will do whatever they are told to in order to “keep people safe”. If they were capable of critical thinking they would never have installed it in the first place – or at least uninstalled it well before now.

10
0
Hypatia
Hypatia
4 years ago

How ridiculous can this all get? You have to self isolate, but can go to work, go shopping and exercise outside. A sort of mini lockdown just for you.

Look, people, just delete the app! I never had it in the first place, but if you have got it, delete it. And turn off your bluetooth unless you really need it. If you cannot now see how the government is making things up as it goes along ( which has been the case from the start, incidentally), then I pity you..

And when I say ” how ridiculous can all this get?” It’s a rhetorical question, not a challenge to the government!

24
0
Prester John
Prester John
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

The government may be making things up as they go along, but they have a plan to never let go of these powers, and they’ve had that all along. Central planning Soviet-style, but for now, fascism.

9
0
X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

“And when I say ” how ridiculous can all this get?” It’s a rhetorical question, not a challenge to the government!”

Brilliant! That made me laugh. 🙂 🙂 🙂

10
0
ebygum
ebygum
4 years ago
Reply to  X - In Search of Space

I was going to put a comment on, then saw yours! Exactly how I feel, I read this with incredulity. Really this is the stuff of Monty Python! The fact that they can say it with a straight face is unbelievable.

8
0
rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

It’s not really that ridiculous, as self-isolation does drive down infections (perhaps the only measure besides vaccines that “works”, although it only delays the problem). So, in terms of infection probability, it’s correct reasoning that self-isolating after work is better than not self-isolating at all (assuming that you’d meet other people after work than at work).

However, it is obviously untenable because nobody in their right mind is going to make such sacrifices. It’s kind of like trying to get more out of your employees by whipping them harder and insulting them – it destroys morale and hurts those who are supposed to depend on the labor, and possibly (but not necessarily) also those who are wielding the whip.

0
0
Zoomer@14
Zoomer@14
4 years ago

These malignant narcissists called politicians can’t give up control of the masses. GET RID OF THE APP…

9
0
iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  Zoomer@14

…Then The Politicians!

2
0
NeilofWatford
NeilofWatford
4 years ago

I attended the Game Fair at Ragley Hall yesterday with my daughter. We, along with around 25,000 others enjoyed a day of country pursuits, horses, falconry and countess stalls from Bonhams, selling an Aston Martin DB5, to a man selling baskets.
I predicted to my daughter before we went in that I’d be able to count mask wearers on the fingers of one hand.
Over the whole day, I saw 4 people in masks.

24
0
Julian
Julian
4 years ago
Reply to  NeilofWatford

That’s good to know. Sadly where I went yesterday indoor mask compliance was close to 100%. It was as if the 19th July had never happened.

10
0
Hypatia
Hypatia
4 years ago
Reply to  NeilofWatford

I was there too! I saw 9 people in total who were fully masked up while walking along outside, plus 3 with masks under their chins.

On one stall, I saw a sign which said “we are not going to be wearing masks, but you are welcome to wear one if you wish”.

Out of 25,000 people, that’s encouraging. The Devon County Show a couple of weeks ago was much the same – I counted 12 mask wearers there. I wonder if people who live in / work in/ enjoy the countryside and country sports have a more robust attitude?

12
0
wendy
wendy
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

I am sure they do as do folks who like outdoor sports and activities as I saw camping back in June. The Government App was always going to be useless and now it is coming home to bite them.

3
0
X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  NeilofWatford

Only 4. That’s excellent. Good to know.

2
0
Prester John
Prester John
4 years ago

If you are ‘notified’ by the NHS App that you have to self-isolate, there is no legal requirement to self-isolate, see the link for Regulation 2B (1) of the relevant regulations. Ministerial guidance on that has no more legal force than the ramblings of SAGE hangers-on. If you are notified by the various government bodies and contractors, then it is a legal requirement. It looks as if the government are muddying the waters (again) deliberately.

13
0
Fearless
Fearless
4 years ago
Reply to  Prester John

Many thanks for that link PJ. I’m going to send it to my double-jabbed friend who is currently imposing self-isolation on herself after being pinged. Hopefully that will convince her to delete the app and end her ridiculous self-imposed quarantine.

7
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Taking the communist **** now. (We will tell you when you can have down time, until then keep working). People are not waking up quick enough to their NWO sick plan

7
0
prod_squadron
prod_squadron
4 years ago

Going on strike was so twentieth century. In the twenty first century, the government asks you to strike as often as possible.

4
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
4 years ago
Reply to  prod_squadron

But now only from social activities, not work (if you are in one of those lines of work why they realise they cant do without).

3
0
ellie-em
ellie-em
4 years ago

#avoidthecrapdeletetheapp.

7
0
yohodi
yohodi
4 years ago

The lunacy of moonrakers.

5
0
Richy_m_99
Richy_m_99
4 years ago

So you get locked up and released only for work detail.

Does the government also provide three squares a day like they do for regular prison inmates.

10
0
wendy
wendy
4 years ago

Are all of us who didn’t ever have the App responsible for the spread of covid? I don’t think so and I’m sure more people didn’t get the App than did.

5
0
Julian
Julian
4 years ago
Reply to  wendy

I’m not sure it’s helpful to think of anyone specifically as being “responsible” for the spread of covid. We’re just cogs in the wheel of the ecosystem of the planet. At most you could say someone who knowingly has a dangerous, infectious disease who could feasibly isolate themselves for a short period and prevent giving it to others could be seen as reprehensible, but beyond that you’re going to end up blaming everyone for living.

1
0
TheBigman
TheBigman
4 years ago

Hahaha. Unless you are doing the state’s bidding you must be under house arrest.
How can no one see this.

9
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Anyone think the ‘pingdemic’ is to control the gullibles?

4
0
chris c
chris c
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

It’s still lockdown, just differently described

3
0
Paul B
Paul B
4 years ago

And so, the whole justification behind the claim that “lockdowns work” is proven (by the government no less) to be complete rubbish. As we were pointing out from the start, it’s always nice to have education and purpose, leisure time etc, moreover it’s pretty critical to be able to eat and have heat and water!

5
0
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago

A virus cannot tell when you are at work.

The constant bombardment of absurdities never ends.

6
0

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