I’m sure you all saw that the government has announced we are going to ‘Plan B’ in Covid measures in a bid to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant, which includes working from home again, so forgive us if we are repeating stuff you know but we of course wanted to be sure we kept you up to date if you weren’t sure on anything (or have given up watching the news!).
So what does that mean for all of us?
WORKING FROM HOME AGAIN – from Monday we are told we should work from home “if we can” – so not a legal requirement (yet) but a recommendation – how will you make that work in your business? What measures can or do you need to put in place? What will you communicate with your teams? If you are not working from home what other covid secure measures might it be useful to remind everyone to follow? We will be still each be going to the office for some of the time but we are making sure we are keeping hygiene and distancing measures in place – what do you need to do in your workplace?
MASKS – From Friday face coverings are required in more indoor public places but not required in workplaces per se (unless your business is a public place of course)
PROOF OF VACCINATION – From next Wednesday everyone is required to show their Covid pass or the results of a negative LFT (or it seem you can also show proof you’ve had a positive PCR and are past the ten day isolation period in last six months) to go into nightclubs and larger venues – this might affect Christmas parties depending on where you are going? A networking group I belong to have tickets to the Big Party Venue locally so we’ll be keeping an eye on what they say we need to do and what measures they will be putting in place to keep everyone safe.
NO ISOLATION FOR CONTACTS OF OMICRON – this at least should help reduce disruption in workplaces (although we are still not entirely clear how anyone knows in good time to let contacts know that they’ve got the Omicron variant!) – there is no date for this to start yet but it is reported that people who have been in contact with the Omicron variant will not need to isolate but can instead take daily lateral flow tests for 10 days – no info yet on whether there is an expectation to register these LFTs but we assume so and we assume it will apply to anyone notified officially by NHS Test & Trace that they are a contact of someone with Omicron.
As always – watch this space….