Test and Trace: Potential impact on staffing?

28 May 2020  

Garages in England emerging from lockdown may need to factor in repeated staff shortages, following the roll-out of the Coronavirus Test and Trace programme from today (Thursday 28 May).

Businesses may find their employees have to repeatedly self-isolate if they come into contact with someone who has COVID-19.

Since this morning, thousands of Tracers have been contacting those who have tested positive for the virus by phone, text and email. They will be asked who they have been in close contact with, which can be defined as people someone has spent 15 minutes or more with a distance of less than two metres, or people with whom someone has had face-to-face conversations at a distance of less than one metre.

Anyone who falls within these categories will be told to isolate for 14 days, even if they are not ill or showing symptoms. They will qualify for statutory sick pay, the cost of which falls upon the employer.

Businesses could lose the same member of staff more than once as well under the scheme, as once they return to work, if they come into contact with someone again who has the virus, they will have to isolate again. Neither will having contracted and recovered from COVID-19 be a way round it, as those who have already had the virus will also be asked to self-isolate. Commenting on Test and Trace, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “In this war on the virus, ultimately we are all on the same side and we’ve all got a part that we can play.” Test and Trace is intended to help the country emerge from full lockdown, but will also mean that mini-lockdowns, localised to very specific areas are possible. A phone app will be introduced in June, which will widen the scope of the scheme, and make it possible to trace contacts made with people not actually known to the infected person.

 Scotland’s scheme, Test and Protect, is also running, as is a similar scheme in Northern Ireland. Contact Tracing in Wales is set to start from Monday (1 June).