Only around 200 of the 2,000 daily testing sites for key workers promised by Boris Johnson to beat the “pingdemic” are in operation and hundreds of them will not be in place until the end of next month - two weeks after the 16 August date when the requirement to self-isolate will be lifted.
The delay was blasted by business figures, with one haulage industry leader telling The Independent it made the scheme “entirely pointless” and accusing the government of “running the clock down” to 16 August rather than helping truckers get back to work.
Facilities to allow key workers to carry on working after being identified as contacts of Covid-positive people were first announced last week, following warnings that the economy risked grinding to a halt with as many as 600,000 employees a week being told to stay home.
But companies have complained that they are unable to register workers or access testing sites, with the Road Haulage Association on Tuesday branding the scheme a “shambles”.
Now official Department of Health figures show that little more than one-tenth of the 2,000 sites planned across the UK are up and running.
The figures reveal that 800 sites have been identified for use and are being prepared for mobilisation as fast as possible, with something over 200 of them currently conducting testing.
But a further 1,200 are yet to be “onboarded” in the first step towards preparation for operations, and the department does not expect the full complement of 2,000 sites to be in operation until the end of August.
By that time, the “pingdemic” is expected to be over anyway, as there will no longer be any requirement from 16 August for fully-vaccinated people - currently more than 70 per cent of the adult population - to self-isolate if identified as a contact by NHS Test and Trace or pinged by the smartphone. Only unvaccinated workers, those with one jab or those waiting to complete two weeks after their second jab, will need to use the sites.
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UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status
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UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel
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UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London
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UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families
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UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk
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UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer
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UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London
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UK news in pictures 19 July 2021 Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England
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UK news in pictures 18 July 2021 A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent
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UK news in pictures 17 July 2021 Cyclists ride over the Hammersmith Bridge in London. The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave
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UK news in pictures 16 July 2021 The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 15 July 2021 Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a ￡7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport's Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe
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UK news in pictures 14 July 2021 Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the world’s first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July
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UK news in pictures 13 July 2021 Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford
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UK news in pictures 12 July 2021 A local resident puts love hearts and slogans on the plastic that covers offensive graffiti on the vandalised mural of Manchester United striker and England player Marcus Rashford on the wall of a cafe on Copson Street, Withington in Manchester
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UK news in pictures 11 July 2021 England's Bukayo Saka with manager Gareth Southgate after the match
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UK news in pictures 10 July 2021 Australia’s Ashleigh Barty holds the trophy after winning her final Wimbledon match against Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova
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UK news in pictures 9 July 2021 England 1966 World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst stands on top of a pod on the lastminute.com London Eye wearing a replica 1966 World Cup final kit and looking out towards Wembley Stadium in the north of the capital, where the England football team will play Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday
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UK news in pictures 8 July 2021 Karolina Pliskova celebrates after defeating Aryna Sabalenka during the women's singles semifinals match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London
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UK news in pictures 7 July 2021 The residents of Towfield Court in Feltham have transformed their estate with England flags for the Euro 2020 tournament
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UK news in pictures 6 July 2021 A couple are hit by a wave as they walk along the promenade in Dover, Kent, during strong winds
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UK news in pictures 5 July 2021 Alexander Zverev playing against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round of the Gentlemen's Singles on Court 1 on day seven of Wimbledon at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
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UK news in pictures 4 July 2021 Aaron Carty and the Beyoncé Experience perform on stage during UK Black Pride at The Roundhouse in London
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UK news in pictures 3 July 2021 England’s Jordan Henderson celebrates after scoring his first international goal, his side’s fourth against Ukraine during the Euro 2020 quarter final match at the Olympic stadium in Rome
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UK news in pictures 2 July 2021 Dan Evans serves against Sebastian Korda during their men’s singles third round match at Wimbledon
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UK news in pictures 1 July 2021 Prince William, left and Prince Harry unveil a statue they commissioned of their mother Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London
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UK news in pictures 30 June 2021 Dancers from the Billingham Festival and Balbir Singh Dance Company, during a preview for the The Two Fridas, UK Summer tour, presented by Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance in collaboration with Balbir Singh Dance Company, inspired by the life and times of female artists Frida Kahlo and Amrita Sher-Gil , which opens on July 10 at Ushaw Historic House, Chapel and Gardens in Durham
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UK news in pictures 29 June 2021 A boy kicks a soccer ball in front of the balconies and landings adorned with predominantly England flags at the Kirby housing estate in London
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UK news in pictures 28 June 2021 Emergency services attend a fire nearby the Elephant & Castle Rail Station in London
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UK news in pictures 27 June 2021 People walk along Regent Street in central London during a #FreedomToDance march organised by Save Our Scene, in protest against the government’s perceived disregard for the live music industry throughout the coronavirus pandemic
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UK news in pictures 26 June 2021 A pair of marchers in a Trans Pride rally share a smile in Soho
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UK news in pictures 25 June 2021 Tim Duckworth during the Long Jump in the decathlon during day one of the Muller British Athletics Championships at Manchester Regional Arena
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UK news in pictures 24 June 2021 A member of staff poses with the work 'The Death of Cash' by XCopy at the 'CryptOGs: The Pioneers of NFT Art' auction at Bonhams auction house in London
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UK news in pictures 23 June 2021 Bank of England Chief Cashier Sarah John displays the new 50-pound banknote at Daunt Books in London
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UK news in pictures 22 June 2021 Actor Isaac Hampstead Wright sits on the newly unveiled Game of Throne's "Iron Throne" statue, in Leicester Square, in London, Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The statue is the tenth to join the trail and commemorates 10 years since the TV show first aired, as well as in anticipation for HBO's release of House of the Dragon set to be released in 2022
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UK news in pictures 21 June 2021 Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon receives her second dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
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UK news in pictures 20 June 2021 Joyce Paton, from Peterhead, on one of the remaining snow patches on Meall a’Bhuiridh in Glencoe during the Midsummer Ski. The event, organised by the Glencoe Mountain Resort, is held every year on the weekend closest to the Summer Solstice
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UK news in pictures 19 June 2021 England appeal LBW during day four of their Women’s International Test match against India at the Bristol County Ground
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UK news in pictures 18 June 2021 Scotland fans let off flares in Leicester Square after Scotland's Euro 2020 match against England ended in a 0-0 draw
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UK news in pictures 17 June 2021 Members of the Tootsie Rollers jazz band pose on the third day of the Royal Ascot horse racing meet
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UK news in pictures 16 June 2021 A woman and child examine life-size sculptures of a herd of Asian elephants set up by the Elephant Family and The Real Elephant Collective to help educate the public on the elephants and the ways in which humans can better protect the planets biodiversity, in Green Park, central London
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UK news in pictures 15 June 2021 Hydrotherapists with Dixie, a seven-year-old Dachshund who is being treated for back problems common with the breed, in the hydrotherapy pool during a facility at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home's in Battersea, London, to view their new hydrotherapy centre
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UK news in pictures 14 June 2021 Scotland's David Marshall in the net after Czech Republic's Patrik Schick scored their second goal at Hampden Park
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UK news in pictures 13 June 2021 Raheem Sterling celebrates with Harry Kane after scoring England’s first goal of the Euro 2021 tournament in a match against Croatia at Wembley
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UK news in pictures 12 June 2021 Oxfam campaigners wearing costumes depicting G7 leaders pose for photographers on Swanpool Beach near Falmouth, Cornwall
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UK news in pictures 11 June 2021 Members of the Vaxinol team, who are commercial, industrial and residential cleaners specialising in disinfection and decontamination, use electrostatic spray systems to deep clean the Only Fools Bar in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 10 June 2021 A woman walks her dogs as the incoming tide begins to wash away the heads of G7 leaders drawn in the sand by activists on the beach at Newquay, Cornwall
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UK news in pictures 9 June 2021 Adam Chamberlain, 45, general manager of Big Tree pub in Sheffield, has put up over 500 flags, taking 36 hours, in preparation for Euro 2020, which kicks off this weekend
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RHA managing director for policy and public affairs Rod McKenzie told The Independent: “This follows the pattern of the government’s actions ever since these measures were announced - confusing, badly thought-through and, as many of our members are saying, entirely pointless.”
The haulage industry has been lobbying for double-jabbed and negative-testing drivers to be automatically exempted from self-isolation instructions in order to keep supermarket shelves full and factories supplied, he said. The industry regarded the government’s solution to the pingdemic as “unworkable” from the start.
“Now it seems that what they have been doing is running down the clock to 16 August in the hope of being seen to do something, even if it’s completely impractical,” he said.
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Munira Wilson said: “The government needs to get a grip so we can get our lives back to normal. Businesses are on their knees as staff self-isolate and millions of kids have missed school due to Covid.
“Our priority needs to be making sure schools can return in September and businesses can operate safely. The government’s inability to get more testing centres up and running puts that in jeopardy.”
Daily testing was first announced on 19 July, after a week in which half a million people were off work self-isolating as contacts, with the scheme initially open only to critical workers including railway signallers and air traffic controllers who were fully vaccinated.
Three days later on Thursday last week, amid growing clamour from businesses for employees to be allowed to go to work, the scheme was extended to an estimated 10,000 food industry workers, with no requirement to be inoculated and the number of planned sites increased to 800.
Then on Monday, another expansion was announced, with a further 1,200 testing sites promised at workplaces around the country in sectors such as prisons, waste collection and defence.
Health secretary Sajid Javid said at the time that daily contact testing would play a “vital role” in helping minimise the potential for disruption caused by rising cases of Covid-19 while keeping staff protected.
Until now, however, there has been no official timetable for how soon all 2,000 would be in operation, with Downing Street saying only that they believed 500 would be up and running by the end of this week.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our top priority has always been protecting the public. The vaccine programme and our robust testing regime are combining to minimise the risk of disruption to key industries and to reduce infections.
“Workplaces are approved to take part in the Workplace Daily Contact Testing scheme on the basis they are able to provide on-site testing services safely and effectively and meet reporting requirements.”
A scientist advising the government on Covid-19 testing has said he would have moved towards a test and release system from self-isolation from January this year.
Immunologist Professor Sir John Bell, of the University of Oxford, said he had been advising the government since January to release Covid contacts from self-isolation if they test negative for the disease, rather than requiring 10 days’ self-isolation.
Prof Bell told BBC Radio 4’s World At One : “We knew by January we had a number of tests that were highly effective at this and that they should have been more widely used in this space.
“If I was the one making the decisions, I would have thought to move much more aggressively from January to make that happen but obviously there is a complex set of issues that lead to political decision making and I am not involved in any of that.”