Letters: UK’s valued food industry risks losing its sweetness thanks to virus isolation rules
[Re: Bosses call for Covid isolation period to be cut as health agency warns this could be ‘counterproductive’, January 4]
It is clear that Omicron is less severe than previous Covid-19 variants. While incredibly welcome that doomsday predictions of 3000 daily deaths this January have proven unfounded, government policy enforcing seven-day isolation is putting the NHS under almost intolerable strain.
But it is not just the health service that is in jeopardy. For food production, the largest manufacturing sector in Britain, mass quarantining of healthy workers threatens to grind production lines to a halt.
Iceland boss Richard Walker has called for isolation to be cut to five days. His call will be echoed by the whole food industry. We have done so much to keep our staff safe throughout the pandemic by implementing advanced protection and prevention measures at considerable cost. Their efforts to feed the nation have been extraordinary. But now we need Government to relax isolation rules – not just to save the NHS – but our essential food industry too.
Jago Pearson