Key workers exempt from self isolation should return to work despite objections by unions, a minister has said.

       Vicky Ford, the children's minister, stressed the need to "minimise disruption to the economy" as the pingdemic continues to cause havoc with key infrastructure industries, such as travel and retail.

       It comes as Union leaders have launched a battle against Government plans to end the pingdemic, concerned that an exemption that allows critical workers to ignore the NHS app and go to work if they are pinged, will cause further harm than good.

       Leaders of the UK’s largest unions are now encouraging key workers to ignore the exemption and stay home, suggesting they could be exposed to Covid in the workplace.

       However, when pressed on Sky News if those critical workers who are doubled jabbed should ignore the ping, despite concerns raised by unions, Ms Ford hinted this was the Government's preference. She said: "Every single employer obviously needs to look at the safety of their staff. We've got many employers who are saying, in these really crucial sectors of the economy ... if they have had the double vaccination, then they can come back if they continue to have that negative test."

       However Mick Lynch, the RMT General Secretary, warned that the Government's guidance gave "very little" about "protecting the people that are having to work" with someone who might have been pinged.

       "So if you're working on board a train or working in a control room, and you are supposed to be isolating, you are enhancing the risk to the other people working around you, whether they're passengers or colleagues on the railway," he told the Today programme.

       "There's very little said about protecting the people that are not isolating their working normally with people who really aren't aware of the effects of the thing."

       He added the whole thing is "utter confusion".

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       Dr Mike Tildesley added that it always takes a couple of weeks for dropping case numbers to be reflected in hospital admissions.

       "I would say that the fact the cases have gone down for the last five days or so is ... I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm cautiously optimistic about that, but I think we're going to have to wait another couple of weeks before we see, firstly, the effect of the 19th of July relaxation and, second, whether hospital admissions will start to go down."

       He told the Today programme: "I think if they do then at that point we can be much more confident that we're starting to see hopefully this wave turning round."

       He said "we need to monitor this over the next few days to see if this is consistently going down or whether we are sort of seeing a dip because schools are closed and then maybe things might level off again, so I think it remains to be seen exactly what's going to happen."

       Vicky Ford said that while the sustained drop in coronavirus cases was "very good news", she warned against complacency.

       After warning how it's possible to go back up, she added: "I think it does show how important it is that we continue to take issues like self-isolation really seriously as well and continue to encourage people to get that vaccine, and the double vaccine indeed, because that's going to be the way that we get out of this longer term."

       Meanwhile, Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group, which provides modelling evidence to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said he was cautiously optimistic about falling cases but wanted to see if hospital admissions also drop.

       He also suggested schools breaking up for the summer could be behind the drop in cases.

       Good morning.

       Today hopes are rising that the UK has passed the peak of third wave as the number of new cases fell for five days in a row, however a senior minister sought to dampen excitement, warning "we all know how quickly it can go back up again".

       It comes as ministers will hold a Covid O meeting today to look at whether more sectors could be exempted from isolation rules, as pingdemic continues to cause turmoil among workers. Watch this space.

       Meanwhile, today marks Boris Johnson's final day of isolation at Chequers.

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