hasn t been clear enough about who is included in the scheme, and how it will actually work. we don t even know if we are included as one of the 500 companies. if we were included, we don t know how the testing is going to operate, so to be honest with you, we haven t got a clue. but this isn tjust a problem for the food industry. transport networks have been hit as well. many railway companies have had to cancel services because they can t get enough drivers. emergency services have been hit, and pubs and restaurants have had to close because they can t get enough staff. there are exemptions available for a small number of fully vaccinated critical workers in sectors such as energy, watersupply, medicines, emergency services and border control. but the system has been criticised as too narrow, and the government is under pressure to extend it, before a much wider relaxation of isolation rules comes in on august 16th. so, what we are saying to the most critical worker sectors is
if we were included we don t know how the testing is going to operate, so to be honest with you, we haven t got a clue. but this isn tjust a problem for the food industry. transport networks have been hit as well. many railway companies have had to cancel services because they can t get enough drives. emergency services have been hit and pubs and restaurants have had to close because they can t get enough staff. there are exemptions available for a small number of fully vaccinated critical workers in sectors such as energy, watersupply, medicines, emergency services and border control. but the system has been criticised as too narrow and the government is under pressure to extend it, before a much wider relaxation of isolation rules comes in on august 16th so what we are saying to the most critical worker sectors is exactly that, so that is the fire, police, border control, certain parts of the food sector, that if you have had that double vaccination and indeed the two
now but certainly this is going to go a very long way to getting the food supply chain working properly. the response from food retailers so far has been positive but others within the sector say there are still many questions to answer. any intervention is welcome. i think we are all feeling in the food industry in particular something needed to happen, something needed to change. so any change, any improvement is welcome. we ve got to see the devil in the detail here. it s been highlighted only certain companies are on the list. who s on the list? who s been identified there? what are the key workers they re talking about? what are the roles? what is the process? i hope government has put sufficient communication in place to be able to cope with the number of enquiries they get. the new programme only applies to the food business. the government is also offering limited exemptions to the isolation rules in other sectors, such as energy, the nuclear industry, medicines and water suppl
cancellations to come. increasingly, businesses are asking why the date for scrapping isolation rules, just three weeks away, can t be brought forward? once again, this pandemic means balancing public health with our social and economic well being, and everything has a cost. dharshini david, bbc news. there s been another fall in the number of new cases across the uk they re down a third on this time last week. the latest government figures show 36,389 new infections in the latest 24 hour period which means an average of 44,219 new cases per day in the last week. 5,000 people are now in hospital with coronavirus figures not seen since the end of march. and 64 deaths were recorded in the last 2a hours. nearly 46.5 million people have now had theirfirstjab that s 88.2% of the adult population. and more than 36.7 million people are now fully vaccinated almost 70% of all uk adults.
to have a blanket exemption. for us, it seems unfair that there s one rule for one sector and another rule for another. railway signalling staff will be exempt, but drivers may not be, so there could be more train cancellations to come. increasingly, businesses are asking why the date for scrapping isolation rules, just three weeks away, can t be brought forward? once again, this pandemic means balancing public health with our social and economic well being, and everything has a cost. dharshini david, bbc news. there s been a fall in the number of new covid cases in the uk for the third day in a row. the latest government figures show 36,389 new infections in the latest 24 hour period, which means an average of 44,249 new cases per day in the last week.