Quarantine failures: British “Pingdemic” causes chaos

Empty shelves, full garbage cans: Because more and more people are being quarantined in parts of Great Britain via app requests, conditions are chaotic in many industries. The corona numbers in the country continue to rise.

According to official Corona warnings for hundreds of thousands of employees in retail and wholesale, many shelves in supermarkets in Great Britain have remained empty. In addition, there are failures in supply chains – for example with drivers of freight forwarders. According to data from the NHS health authority, almost 620,000 retail workers in England and Wales were asked via app to quarantine for ten days because of contact with infected people.

The meat industry had warned of a collapse in the supply chain. British newspapers featured pictures of empty supermarket shelves on their front pages.

Full garbage cans, delayed post deliveries

“We are very concerned about the situation,” said Minister of Economics Kwasi Kwarteng the broadcaster Sky. But one cannot speak of empty shelves in general. UK’s second largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, said customers would find all products, but not every brand. The Icelandic supermarket group meanwhile announced that several shops have been closed due to staff shortages. However, it also announced that it would temporarily hire 2,000 new employees.

Other supermarkets report missing products or warn against having to restrict opening times. But the problems are even more far-reaching: Nissan and Rolls Royce warned a few days ago that they would have to limit their production if the quarantine numbers continued to rise. According to media reports, hundreds of pubs, restaurants and numerous theaters have also closed, and in some communities the garbage collection no longer works. According to the BBC, in some places there is also no garbage cans being emptied. The Royal Mail has announced a delay in mail delivery for several regions and in Cleveland, northern England, according to a newspaper report, even the police pointed out that it could take longer for calls to be answered.

NHS app simply deleted

It is estimated that around 1.7 million British people are currently in self-isolation because they are either sick with Covid-19 or have been “pinged” as close contacts by infected people – i.e. by the English Corona app or the health service. The “Pingdemic”, as the phenomenon is referred to by the British media, has sparked a debate about whether people who are fully vaccinated can escape compulsory quarantine and instead are allowed to test themselves daily. This regulation should apply from mid-August. So far, however, there have only been exceptions for participants in a pilot project or, for example, for employees of the health service.

The problems associated with the app warning come at a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson has only just largely freed the economy from corona restrictions. However, the number of corona cases is increasing sharply – more than 44,000 new infections were registered in the middle of the week. The seven-day incidence was last at 472. Many people simply deleted the NHS app in order to avoid quarantine requests.