Yahoo Finance Workers exempt from self-isolation list in full amid pingdemic chaos
More details about workers who can be exempt from self-isolation have been revealed on Friday.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has handed out the list of exemptions in full.
DEFRA said the exemptions would be “subject to all other mitigation options being exhausted”.
The workers in the designated jobs will be allowed to leave isolation to travel to work after a negative daily test.
If they test positive, they will go into quarantine and not go to work.
The exemption list only applies to fully vaccinated workers.
Specific job titles include
Agri-food chain -
Manufacturing maintenance engineers, quality assurance technicians, and highly skilled supervisors.
Specialist reach truck drivers - only where the use of this type of truck is essential in the movement of critical goods.
Official vets, meat hygiene inspectors, poultry health inspectors, environmental health officers and certifying support officers necessary for preventing immediate risk to food safety or animal welfare in processing plants.
Waste -
Staff essential to the removal and processing of healthcare, hazardous, or municipal waste.
Staff essential to the running of incineration plants.
Landfill operators.
Water and wastewater -
Water engineers, staff/contractors working on repair of mains/supply interruption, chemical and technical specialists, emergency response practitioners, and control room staff whose immediate attendance at work is essential to maintaining critical services.
Veterinary medicines -
Batch testing laboratory staff and qualified persons essential to the batch release of medicines.
Laboratory staff essential to the production of veterinary medicines.
Incident response and prevention -
Government vets and official veterinarians responding to animal disease outbreaks or cases of serious animal health/welfare concern.
Environment agency staff operating the Thames Barrier and other critical flood defence assets, and environment agency staff on response teams in regional areas across the country to ensure effective protection of life and property in the event of a flood or other major incident.
Navigation authority staff whose roles/tasks include essential maintenance on assets with high consequence of failure and/or essential health and safety activity which mitigates risk of loss of life.
The full list of sectors
Border control, Civil nuclear, Clinical consumable supplies, Digital infrastructure, Emergency services, Energy, Essential chemicals, Essential defence, Essential transport, Food production and supply, Local government, Medicines, Medical devices, Waste, Water and Veterinary medicines.
Pingdemic chaos
More than 600,000 people were told to self-isolate last week after being ‘pinged’ by the NHSCovid-19 tracing app, official figures show.
A record 618,903 alerts were sent to users of the app in England and Wales in the week to July 14, telling them they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus.
This is up more than 15% on the previous week when 530,126 people were pinged and marks the highest seven-day total since data was first published in January.
It has been warned hotels, supermarkets and restaurants face a summer of closures as their workers are not exempt from pingdemic.
Industry body UK Hospitality warned the sector was being left with no choice but to work with “one hand tied behind its back”.
UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the industry she represents has been left to “face the consequences” after being missed off the list.
She said: “We now face a summer of venue closures and reduced service, when we should be at a seasonal peak. The sector will do all it can to provide great service, but it will be with one hand tied behind our back.
“Those who are fully vaccinated should be able to test after a ping and, subject to a negative result, carry on with their lives. For those not fully vaccinated two negative tests should be sufficient to return to work.”
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