Self-isolation rules and your small business/charity

"As an individual with a sound grounding in health, I can appreciate the delay, but as a business owner, I am planning for the dreaded reality of having a team member get the message, and this continues to have an adverse impact on businesses and planning."

"To have to wait another five weeks for the self-isolation rules to end is another two fingers to the average small business. "We're getting increasingly concerned with staffing shortages due to self-isolation. This is mainly led by the NHS app 'pinging' our staff about close contact with a positive case. "In an already stressed labour market, and with restrictions still in place, this is having a massive impact on our ability to trade. And the same applies to many other small businesses I know. "The problem with the NHS app is that you can be on the other side of a wall from a positive close contact, or in another room altogether, but still be told to self-isolate because of the limitations in Bluetooth technology. "According to the NHS, the current NHS app telling you to isolate is not legally enforceable, unlike a call, email or text directly from Test & Trace. However, as a business, we still need to act on the advice from the app and have a responsibility for the safety of our staff and customers. "We are asked by the Government to believe that the app is to be trusted, yet they won't back it by law, which begs all manner of questions."

"The rush to open the country up again in the face of scientific advice to hit an arbitrary date with little thought about the consequences is moronic. The fact that there may be over 2 million positive Covid cases between now and the end of summer worries me even more. "I have one previously fit and healthy member of staff who is still unable to return to normal duties a year after going down with Covid, which then developed into a nasty case of long Covid. What happens if that's another 2 or 3 members of staff?"

"Every time we've been 'released' from lockdown, people run amok spreading it among the population again, putting us right back where we started. "Frustrating as it is to have to follow guidelines, for the greater good of public health we have to play to the lowest common denominator. Measures to prevent the misery of another winter lockdown are very welcome, even if it means we have to continue to do business over Zoom, phone and email for a little while longer."

"Why the ridiculous delay? Either the vaccinations work, or they don't. If vaccines can't be trusted, that's bad news for us all."

"16th August feels like a totally arbitrary date, but it will hopefully encourage vaccine-hesitant individuals to take up their jab. "It also gives the under-30s who do want their second jab the opportunity to have it, so that they aren't enforced into self-isolation out of a lack of choice."

Rising case numbers are certainly to do with this lag when self isolation relaxes. In the grand scheme of things it's a small overlap period to have to endure.