The spike in track and trace alerts forcing people to self-isolate for 10 days is further hampering hospitality’s ability to reopen. The government have signalled their intention to fully reopen society on 19 July but not scrapping self-isolation at the same time will limit the ability to do so.
In Parliament today during Prime Minister’s Questions the PM was pressed repeatedly in the Commons to spell out forecasts of self-isolation orders, and was twice rebuked by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle as he refused to do so.
Across the country the requirement of people to self-isolate is seeing hospitality venues already suffering from severe people and skills shortages forced to close. The government has acknowledged the spread of Covid-19 will see significant increases in the number of infections, so the number of enforced self-isolations will also rise significantly.
Sajid Javid, the new Health Secretary in a statement to the House of Commons yesterday said: “From 16 August when even more people will have the protection of both doses, and when modelling suggests the risks from the virus will be even lower, anyone who is a close contact of a positive case will no longer have to self-isolate if they have been fully vaccinated.” There were some additional conditions attached to that statement, too many to list, but that is a very long time when placed against predicted modelling of infection rates in the days and weeks ahead.
Javid also suggested that the current daily rates of infection at circa 28,000 a day could rise to 100,000 a day over the summer. If infection rates grow at anything like that rate many more hospitality venues will be forced to close before 16 August.
Government is moving fast, and reopening society will see hospitality having to adjust nimbly to keep pace with changes in legislation. Maybe a Minister for Hospitality would be advantageous in ensuring the industry gets back to adding £59 billion in Gross Value Added to the UK economy as it did in 2019 pre-pandemic.
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Hospitality & Catering News: PM rebuked by Speaker Hoyle for not answering Parliament on self-isolation. – 7 July 2021 – PM rebuked by Speaker Hoyle for not answering Parliament on self-isolation .
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