Covid: Staff shortage due to self-isolation a 'significant threat', supermarket boss warns

• Watch the report by Richard Morgan

A boss of a Welsh supermarket chain has said he has been forced to close or reduce hours in some of his stores due to the number of people being told to self-isolate.

Matthew Hunt, who owns Filco, which has nine stores across south Wales, described the situation as a "significant threat" which has seen around 20% of staff off work from the shop floor to the production line.

It comes as the number of people notified by the NHS Test and Trace app in Wales and England recently passed 500,000 in a single week and over the weekend, Transport for Wales issued an apology for cancellations to numerous rail services as Covid-19 notifications forced a number of staff to self-isolate.

Mr Hunt told ITV News, "It impacts us in different ways - it's about product sourcing, distribution, farmers are struggling to pick strawberries, then guys transporting strawberries - there's a shortage of drivers. It progresses and expands as you look into it."

Mr Hunt said he believes work needs to be done to make the app work better after as businesses continue to struggle amid the 'pingdemic'.

"We have a risk assessment and in most circumstances, we end up taking actions in advance of any notifications from Track and Trace - or the app getting in touch.

"We're very pro active - we're searching through the team and get them tested before we bring them back in."

It's been reported that up to a fifth of workers in companies are having to self-isolate, putting supply chains, public transport and the NHS under significant strain.

Welsh Conservative Shadow Health spokesman Russell George MS called on both the Welsh and UK Government to work together to implement changes to isolation rules and the app.  

“We have made great strides with our vaccination programme and the restoration of many freedoms, but our vital public services and economic recovery could be severely hampered by a potential ‘ping-demic’.

 On Monday, a spokesperson for the prime minister said the NHS Covid app will not be "tweaked" as one-third of those "pinged" go on to develop symptoms.

The spokesperson attributed the figures to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as people are being warned not to ignore being told to self-isolate amid soaring numbers of those asked to do so.

General Secretary of the TUC Shavannah Taj told ITV News they are particularly worried about the impact on low paid workers.

She said, "There is absolutely no question that it is being hugely disruptive.

"We've been consistently concerned about the financial hit workers from being asked to self isolate - particularly for low paid workers, and no one should be punished for financially for doing the right thing - but we know that only one in three workers don't get full sick pay."

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said over 1,000 staff were currently self-isolating despite all but a tiny fraction testing positive for Covid.

He told ITV News the "exponential rise" in the number of people being pinged was having a "very, very damaging" affect on businesses.

"We've got whole swathes of our workforce who are now being pinged and told to self isolate for 10 days.

"Interestingly, our absence rate is the highest it's been since testing began, it's now over 1,000 people out of our 30,000 staff and that's rising 50% week-on-week.

"But out of those 1,000 people, 94% of those people tested negative and zero have any symptoms of any severity.

"The whole thing is exceptionally challenging for business and especially because it needs to be in an environment where we need to support and facilitate businesses' recovery as we can."

Matthew Hunt agreed and said as the vaccination programme progresses, coronavirus should be treated as more of a "commercial situation... where you're trying to keep things open and obviously businesses require staff to do so. There should be a balancing act between opening things up and keeping people safe."

In a statement, a Welsh Government spokesperson said whilst there is no specific support if a business is unable to operate due to isolating staff, "we have made more than £2.5bn of funding available to steer businesses through the pandemic and safeguarded over 160,000 Welsh jobs.

"This is in addition to a full 12 month rates holiday package for those in the hardest hit sectors.”