Supermarkets and petrol stations are being forced to close due to staff shortages caused by the NHS Test and Trace system.
As the ‘pingdemic’ ramps up across the country, Iceland has shut ‘a number of stores’ as too many members of staff have been told to self isolate by the Covid app.
The supermarket chain say 1,000 employees, or 4% of its workforce, have had to stay at home for this reason.
It has been forced to reduce trading hours in some stores and says it will hire 2,000 extra staff to cover absences following an advertising campaign.
Supermarkets that have managed to stay open are struggling to keep their shelves full due to a lack of workers.
Pictures taken yesterday show bare fruit and veg boxes, as well as freezer cabinets and other aisles.
It has fuelled calls from British Retail Consortium for the Government to relax isolation guidance for workers to deal with the ‘increasing pressure’.
However Iceland boss Richard Walker has urged customers not to panic buy and says not everywhere has been affected as badly.
He told BBC Radio 4: ‘There is certainly no problem with supply of stock and there’s absolutely no need for people to panic buy.
‘We certainly don’t want to go back to the dark days of April 2020, because panic buying is only an option for those who can afford it, and it often means that others go without.
‘Our supply chains are resilient. Yes we do have some availability issues, which are probably as bad as they’ve been over the last year, but there is enough to go around.
‘The dramatic pictures that you might have seen in the media are isolated incidents and not widespread.’
BP has has to close a handful of stations due to a petrol and diesel shortage caused by a lack of available drivers due to too many being pinged.
However, the oil company said the ‘vast majority’ of shortages were being ‘resolved within a day’.
It said the problem had been made worse by the closure of a distribution terminal, due to staff being told to isolate last week.
Meanwhile M&S has warned that 20% of its workforce would be isolating by mid-August, which could force it to reduce opening hours.
Currently 1.7million workers are thought to be in self-isolation due to the test and trace system, MailOnline reports.
Some will have been pinged by the Covid app, while others will have been contacted by Test and Trace officials.
Calling on Downing Street to take action, British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson said: ‘We are already seeing a serious impact on retail operations as a result of staff having to self-isolate and this will only get worse right across the economy, as cases are already rising fast and the final restrictions are eased.’
The Government is currently planning to allow fully vaccinated people to be exempt from the 10 day isolation requirement from August 16.
But Ms Dickinson called on No 10 to pull this forward so people are no longer forced to ‘needlessly quarantine’.
Boris Johnson has announced plans to exempt a ‘small number’ of fully vaccinated key workers so they can carry on their jobs.
He said the sectors would include ‘food, water, electricity, medicines, the running of our trains, the protection of our borders and the defence of the realm’.
When asked if he might expand this list, he said he was reluctant, adding that self-isolation to control the virus is ‘one of the only shots left in our locker’.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vbWV0cm8uY28udWsvMjAyMS8wNy8yMi9icC1nYXJhZ2VzLWFuZC1pY2VsYW5kLXN0b3Jlcy1mb3JjZWQtdG8tc2h1dC1hcy1waW5nZGVtaWMtZ3JpbmRzLXVrLXRvLWhhbHQtMTQ5Njk1MzAv0gF4aHR0cHM6Ly9tZXRyby5jby51ay8yMDIxLzA3LzIyL2JwLWdhcmFnZXMtYW5kLWljZWxhbmQtc3RvcmVzLWZvcmNlZC10by1zaHV0LWFzLXBpbmdkZW1pYy1ncmluZHMtdWstdG8taGFsdC0xNDk2OTUzMC9hbXAv?oc=5
2021-07-22 07:05:00Z
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