It is not just health workers who have been at the front line of the Covid crisis.
Every day of lockdown and beyond, shop workers, warehouse staff and lorry drivers have gone out to work to ensure there is food on the shelves and on the tables at home.
But with supermarkets warning that supply chains are struggling and staff are not available to work because so many are self-isolating the announcement by the Scottish Government that key staff will be exempt could not be more welcome.
There should be no question of putting staff at risk from infection or infecting others.
But the system under consideration for several weeks now – allowing people who are alerted, test negative and have been double-vaccinated to return to work – seems to be the best way forward.
Fresh resources have to be funnelled to the Test and Protect system to help catch people before they pass the virus on this winter.
And even though employers may baulk at the prospect, extra staff have to be taken on in shops and wages reset at a level that makes it attractive to potential workers.
Big food chains actually benefited a lot from lockdown and their staff should now begin to feel the rewards in their pockets for being on the front line for the last 18 months.
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