COVID-19 Update 2nd August 2021

Social Impacts Of Coronavirus

The results of ONS’s ongoing weekly research on the social impacts of coronavirus have been published. The results are for the week to 25^th July and the key findings are:

• • A third of people still think that it will take at least a year for things to get back to normal (same as last week)
  • 6% of adults reported that they were self-isolating at some point in the last seven days – 9% for people aged 16-29 which indicates the impact of the “pingdemic” on tourism and hospitality staff
  • 89% of people still consider it important to wear facemasks when in shops while 88% are still consider it important to maintain social distancing
  • For the first time, over 50% of people met with someone indoors this week – which is good news for indoor venues
  • The percentage of people solely working from home continues to fall (22% this week)  but the number of people solely travelling to work remains at just under 50%

These findings continue to indicate that the public are exercising a cautious approach to the reopening following the move to Step 4 and that businesses need to continue to reassure customers that they are undertaking covid-safe measures.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsongreatbritain/30july2021

Changes To Self-Isolation Requirements In Wales

The Welsh First Minister has announced that, from 7^th August, all adults who have been fully-vaccinated will no longer have to self-isolate if they are identified as close contacts of someone with coronavirus. In addition, whose aged under 18 will also be exempt from the need to self-isolate if they are identified as close contacts of a positive case.

https://gov.wales/changes-self-isolation-fully-vaccinated-adults

How Long Will Vaccinations Be Effective ?

Not tourism related but interesting nevertheless, the government has published a Sage paper on the how long they think that vaccinations will be effective. Some of the key point are:

• • It is likely that there will be vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2 for many years to come
  • We currently do not know what will be the optimal required frequency for re-vaccination to protect the vulnerable from COVID disease.
  • Different vaccines may induce different sorts of immunity, which may have different duration

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-long-will-vaccines-continue-to-protect-against-covid-19-30-july-2021

Distribution Of Grants By Councils

The figures for the distribution of Grant funding for the period up until the end of June have been published. Looking through the figures it seems that most councils have distributed their allocations from Government but there were still a few that needed to allocate significant sums during July in order to meet tomorrow’s deadline. They include:

• • Exeter has £1.1m to distribute
  • Ipswich has £0.9m to distribute
  • Norwich has £0.7m to distribute
  • Kingston upon Thames has £2.6m to distribute
  • Southend has £4m to distribute
  • Westminster has £3m to distribute

What is disappointing about this is that with just 30 days left, some of these councils hadn’t distributed half the funding that they had been given by the Government at the beginning of the year to support businesses in their area which will have resulted these businesses facing unnecessary hardship over this period.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses

Free Training From ACAS

I’ve received a call from ACAS who are looking for employers to take part in a new training product for line managers, which will give them the skills to handle complex workplace issues more effectively. Employers will get access to new, evidence-based conflict management training for up to 15 line managers free of charge, in return for feedback on the training. I’ve told them that the timing isn’t great as businesses will be busy over summer but it is worth remembering that training such as this is allowed for staff that are still on furlough without it affecting CJRS payments.

I’ve attached a one-page summary of the research that provides more details and here is the link to the website for more information

https://skilledmanagers.org/

R Number and Growth Rate

As ever, here is this week’s R Number and Growth Rate – which are, respectively,  1.1 to 1.4 and +2% to +5%. This is good news is that while the number is infections is still increasing, they are increasing at the lowest rate since the beginning of July which, if it continues, suggests that we may not experience the large spike in cases that were projected for August.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-value-and-growth-rate