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* COVID-19 cases surging in Britain
* Official tracing app telling workers to self-isolate
* Crisis has overshadowed PM Johnson's 'freedom day'
By James Davey and Kate Holton
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - England's railways, supermarkets
and pubs warned the government on Monday that a COVID tracing
app, which has told hundreds of thousands of workers to isolate,
was wrecking the recovery and pushing supply chains to the brink
of collapse.
Cases of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom have hit around
50,000 a day in recent days, pushing workers to self-isolate for
10 days after they were identified as a contact of someone with
the disease, a crisis dubbed 'Pingdemic'.
Alerts, or pings, sent out by the official app have caused
huge disruption in schools, businesses and the healthcare
system, just as the government lifts nearly all restrictions in
England to help drive an economic recovery.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, finance minister Rishi Sunak
and health minister Sajid Javid are all currently isolating.
Some pubs have shut, supply chains are teetering and the car
breakdown service AA warned of longer response times at call
centres.
"The pingdemic is here and businesses need urgent change,"
Richard Walker, the managing director of supermarket chain
Iceland, said on Twitter.
Britain's biggest rail operator, Govia Thameslink, said it
may need to cancel some services in London and South East
England. Retailer Marks & Spencer said it may have to
reduce business hours.
"Where the industry will see the pain is in the supply
chain, because logistics runs tight anyway to be efficient,"
Marks & Spencer CEO Steve Rowe said in a statement.
Pub operator Greene King said it had to temporarily close 33
pubs last week due to a lack of staff. British baker Warburtons
said it was struggling to maintain local deliveries as more
staff self-isolate, exacerbating a national driver shortage.
The so-called pingdemic has overshadowed Johnson's 'freedom
day' on Monday which ended over a year of lockdown restrictions
in England.
Firms have urged the government to introduce a system that
would allow those who test negative for the virus to return to
work or to make the official app less sensitive. But a spokesman
for Johnson said no changes were planned.
A person familiar with the situation in the retail sector
said just under 10% of staff were absent, although some
retailers are seeing absence rates of around 30%.
A second source at one of Britain's biggest supermarkets,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said while absence
rates were up, they remained manageable and below the peaks of
last year when the pandemic was raging.
Some healthcare workers may be able to skip isolation and
those who have been fully vaccinated will be exempt from
isolation demands from Aug. 16.
Smaller businesses, however, are particularly alarmed.
"Having just one of my customers test positive will close my
entire business for two weeks with no financial support," said
Helen Williams, owner of Willow Bridal Boutique in north west
England.
(Additional reporting by Sarah Young and David Milliken;
Writing by Kate Holton
Editing by Joe Bavier)
