The government said this is a small and targeted intervention to ensure that services critical to the safety and functioning of our society can continue…reports Asian Lite News.
Fully vaccinated critical workers to be able to leave self-isolation in exceptional circumstances under new plans to prevent serious disruption to vital public services.
Railway signallers and air traffic controllers are among the critical workers who may in exceptional circumstances be able to leave self-isolation to attend work if deemed a close contact under new plans to prevent serious disruption to vital public services.
The government said this is a small and targeted intervention to ensure that services critical to the safety and functioning of our society can continue.
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This means enabling individuals to attend work where not doing so would lead to major detrimental impact on the availability, integrity or delivery of essential services.
This include those services whose integrity, if compromised, could result in significant loss of life or casualties, and/or where there is an immediate risk to defence or security.
“Throughout this global pandemic, critical workers across the country have been doing the extraordinary by delivering vital services – from policing the streets to keeping our transport links open,” Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said.
“These individuals form the backbone of many of our most vital services and, as we learn to live with this virus, it’s right we do everything in our power to protect services from disruption by allowing our fully vaccinated critical workers to keep doing their important work.”
This will only apply to workers who are fully vaccinated – defined as someone who is 14 days post-final dose – and will be solely so that they can attend work. They will otherwise need to continue to self-isolate as directed by NHS Test and Trace.
It applies to asymptomatic contacts only and not individuals who have tested positive or who have Covid-19 symptoms.
Critical workers who attend work in these exceptional circumstances will need to take a PCR test as soon as possible followed by daily LFD tests before attending work each day of their self-isolation period.
If they test positive or start to show symptoms they must immediately self-isolate and will no longer be able to attend work.
The government said this is a short-term measure before the exemption for fully vaccinated contacts is introduced on 16 August.
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