Supermarket staff are deleting the NHS Covid app in droves because if they don't they may have to self-isolate, according to the boss of Iceland.
Many professions are now exempt from having to self-isolate for ten days if they get messaged, or 'pinged', by the app.
These include NHS staff, railway signallers and air traffic controllers, who will have daily testing instead. But the list does not include supermarket staff, despite being classed as keyworkers.
As a result, Iceland managing director Richard Walker told Radio 4 that staff were just deleting the app.
He said this was not a good idea, but added: "To be honest, who can blame them?"
He added: "Now, our staff are law-abiding citizens, but with all of their sick pay used up with peak holiday season it feels to me like potentially they're starting to delete the app en masse, which they weren't previously doing.
"I'm not condoning it but I can understand why they are doing it - and this is not law, this is government guidelines - but it has to be pragmatic, and our staff are working so hard and have been nothing short of heroic throughout this pandemic."
The scientist behind the NHS Covid app is urging people not to delete it from phones – but is calling on the government to axe the requirement to self-isolate after being pinged.
Professor Christophe Fraser has waded into the argument over whether the double-jabbed should have to shut themselves away for 10 days.
Writing for the Mirror, the chief scientific adviser for the app said: “A more useful approach [when] many people are vaccinated is… regular testing as an alternative to quarantine.”
He added that the public should not delete the app because it is reducing hospitalisations.
Nissan workers have even used the situation to their advantage to blag time off in Britain’s first 'pingdemic' swindle.
Up to 60 staff at the Japanese car giant’s Sunderland plant were hauled through disciplinaries over the ruse.
Sources claim a screenshot of a worker’s genuine self-isolation alert on the NHS app was passed among colleagues, who claimed they too needed to quarantine.
One member of staff explained: “Workers have been using other people’s screenshots to get time off work.
“They sent their gaffer a screenshot from the Covid app that wasn’t even from their phone.”
Brexit and the 'pingdemic' have led to a shortage of workers in several industries, including supermarket HGV drivers.
That lack of workers is due to Europeans facing too much red tape to work in the UK and many workers forced to stay at home and self-isolate.
It means many bosses are now being forced to pay their staff more.
Tesco is offering a £1,000 'golden handshake' joining bonus for HGV drivers to help plug the massive gap.
There is currently an estimated shortfall of around 100,000 HGV drivers in the UK, caused by a mixture of the coronavirus crisis and Brexit.
Any HGV driver that signs up to the company before September 30 will get the £1,000 bonus. HGV drivers earn an average of £32,500 a year, according to employment website totaljobs.co.uk.
Asda is also paying a £1,000 signing-on bonus to drivers at its Bedford, Brackmills, Dartford and Erith depots.
