The government has warned operators that exemptions to current Covid-19 self-isolation rules will only be for ‘very limited’ exceptional circumstances, assessed on a case-by-case basis, and added that it was ‘not designed to mitigate acute shortages of lorry drivers’.
The announcement comes in the wake of new guidelines allowing supermarket depot workers and food manufacturers exemption from quarantine rules as the government tries to ease problems in the food supply chain.
Despite the government allowing retail workers, regardless of vaccination status, to do daily Covid testing instead of isolating, transport firms will still have to go through a complex process involving a formal application to the DfT.
In a statement, DfT said: “This is a short-term measure before the exemption from self-isolation for fully vaccinated contacts is introduced on 16 August, and is only intended for exceptional circumstances.”
It advised operators that all requests will be ‘subject to the appropriate level of scrutiny’ and that the process is ‘not designed to mitigate acute shortages of lorry drivers’.
