United Kingdom: government faces surge in contact cases

An underground line closed in London for lack of personnel.

This is one of the consequences of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom.

This increase in the number of patients inevitably leads to an explosion in contact cases.

On the other side of the Channel, these contact cases must observe a period of isolation of 10 days which considerably threatens the country's economy.

Last week, nearly 600,000 notifications were sent to British citizens asking them to self-isolate.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself is currently in quarantine.

The daily life of the British turned upside down

These forced isolations have direct repercussions in the daily life of the British. The British press published photos of completely empty supermarket shelves. Some of them even have to reduce their opening hours or, in the worst case, close completely. The explanation can be found on the side of road hauliers who are facing a lack of manpower to such an extent that the company Bidfood called on its drivers to continue their activity, even in the event of a notification on the tracing application. .

In addition, the police force announced that some interventions would be lengthened and more than a million children could not go on vacation as planned due to the isolation of their parents.

To make up for the shortage of staff, Iceland, a large-scale retailer specializing in frozen foods, has announced the recruitment of 2,000 employees to continue running its stores.

Government at the foot of the wall

Faced with all these incidents, the British government faces a paradoxical situation. The executive has largely lifted the health restrictions linked to Covid-19, based on the progress of the vaccination campaign. Nonetheless, he maintained the 10-day isolation rule for contact cases. Many professionals call on Boris Johnson to relax this rule which paralyzes part of the country. “The most important thing this government can do is recognize that the current situation is untenable,” said Helen Dickinson, Managing Director of the British Distributors Federation.

This pandemic is far from over and that is why it is essential to keep up the system of Test, Trace & Isolate.

We will protect crucial services by making sure that a very small number of fully vaccinated, critical workers can leave isolation solely for work.

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- Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 19, 2021

Boris Johnson has apologized to the companies concerned for the "inconvenience" and his Minister of Business, Kwasi Kwarteng, indicated that a list of professionals exempted from isolation would be published very soon.

Since Monday, already, vaccinated employees of the public health service no longer need to observe this isolation, provided they present a negative PCR test.

Read alsoCovid-19: vaccinated contact cases will be exempted from isolation in the event of a negative test

According to YouGov polls, nearly half of Britons would not self-isolate if they tested negative after contact with an infected person, and 10% of them even deleted the tracking app from their phones.