The Prime Minister’s announcement on that day changed our lives completely. 12 months and three national lockdowns later, many of us will have friends, colleagues and family members we haven’t seen in what feels an eternity.

There have been major implications for workers in this time, too. A lot of people have found themselves on furlough for a significant proportion, while many others have, unfortunately, been made redundant.

Thanks to a strong collective national effort, particularly in regards to the development and subsequent rollout of vaccines, the outlook now looks a lot more positive. Nearly 30 million people have now had their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while daily numbers of cases, hospital admissions and deaths are steadily declining.

Despite this, we cannot afford to take our foot off the gas as a nation. Another wave of Covid-19 infections across Europe is resulting in lockdown measures being reintroduced in some countries, providing a stark warning of how quickly the situation can deteriorate if we’re not collectively sensible in our approach moving forward.

While the vaccination numbers are encouraging, a vast majority of those still require a second dose, and there is still a significant proportion of the population yet to be vaccinated. Therefore, there is still a long way to go to achieve herd immunity, and even longer still before we come out the other side of this pandemic.

As such, it is imperative we continue to adhere to Covid-safe procedures, particularly as more parts of society begin to open up again in the coming months and more people return to the workplace as a result.

If you’d like to find out how you can make your workplace Covid-safe ahead of returning to the workplace, get in touch with us today.

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As the nation fights back against the Covid-19 pandemic, people’s immune systems are likely to have weakened due to a lack of social contact over the past 12 months.

As such, our exposure to other respiratory viruses has been minimal, meaning we could see a surge in illnesses like the flu in winter, as well as the potential for increasing coronavirus cases.

Dr Hopkins told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “I think we have to prepare for a hard winter, not only with coronavirus, but we’ve had a year of almost no respiratory viruses of any other type. And that means, potentially the population immunity to that is less.

“So we could see surges in flu. We could see surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens.”

Dr Hopkins said she has to “prepare for worst-case scenarios” in her capacity as a government advisor, saying that the NHS needs to be ready for any potential surges, particularly in consideration of the dual-threat posed by catching the flu as well as Covid.

There is some evidence that a double infection can be more deadly than catching either alone, while a surge in both coronavirus and flu cases could result in the NHS becoming overwhelmed.

As well as combatting Covid-19, sanitiser and disinfectant products from Covid Safe UK contain Hypochlorous Acid (HOCL) to form an Electronically Activated Water which kills 99.99% of harmful germs, viruses and spores including flu, MRSA and Norovirus in less than one minute.

Get in touch with the Covid Safe UK team today to find out more.

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Mr Johnson laid out target dates on which different industries can reopen, provided that conditions around vaccination, testing and new COVID-19 variants are met.

Under his plans, non-essential retail shops, hairdressers, gyms and outdoor hospitality venues will be allowed to reopen on 12 April, as well as some public buildings such as libraries.

Two households could also be allowed to mix from 17 May, while pubs may be able to open with the ‘rule of six’.

The step-by-step lockdown easing process could then culminate in the lifting of all legal limits on social contact by 21 June in a bid to reopen the sectors of the economy which remain closed.

The PM called the plans ‘cautious, but irreversible’, and believes that we will have to learn to live with the virus, saying there was ‘no credible route to a zero-Covid Britain nor indeed a zero-Covid world.’

While there would be far fewer COVID-19 cases, as well as a greater proportion of the population vaccinated, in this scenario, the fact remains that the virus won’t have just gone away.

In order to meet these targets, it is important that we all take responsibility for the role we play in reducing transmission. In the case of businesses, we must ensure that the working environment is as safe as possible in order to protect employees and reduce the chances of coronavirus restrictions being reintroduced.

If you’d like to find out how you can create and maintain a Covid-safe working environment for your team, get in touch with Covid Safe UK today.

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The hospitality sector has been significantly hit by the pandemic, with many venues becoming on the verge of collapse during the past year. A recent survey of more than 100 nightclubs found that 88% were in rent arrears, while around four in five said they would struggle to survive beyond the end of February without further government support.

The lifting of lockdown measures around the summer of 2020 had allowed pubs and restaurants to reopen for a short period with the implementation of track and trace, social distancing and reduced capacities, while some have continued to offer takeaway services. Nightclubs, however, have been unable to operate for almost a year, while many theatres have struggled to make social distancing work.

Mr Johnson said rapid lateral flow tests could help ‘those parts of the economy we couldn’t get open last year.’

He stressed that it’s still early days, but rapid tests ‘will probably be the route forward, in combination with vaccination.’

While the vaccine rollout has been a beacon of hope for many of us, rapid testing is likely to play a key role as we endeavour to return to some form of normal life.

There is little evidence as yet regarding the ability of the COVID-19 vaccines to reduce transmission of the virus, while their efficacy against some of the new variants also remains clear.

As such, effective testing regimes are likely to be the best option in terms of business continuity for many months to come.

Healgen COVID-19 Antigen tests can provide users with a test result in just 15 minutes, and are being increasingly viewed by businesses as an efficient method of operating a Covid-safe workplace.

If you’d like to find out more about Covid-safe solutions for the workplace, get in touch with Covid Safe UK today.

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This is despite current government guidance, which says that people should work from home if they can, with data from Public Health England suggesting that offices have had greater numbers of outbreaks in comparison to other workplaces.

The figures show that there were more than 500 suspected COVID-19 outbreaks in offices in the second half of 2020. This is a greater number than supermarkets, construction sites, warehouses, restaurants and cafes combined.

Office work can be essential and unavoidable for certain organisations at times, and unions have called for tougher safety rules to protect office workers.

Any business which either cannot circumvent office working, or is looking to get back to the office as soon as possible after lockdown, should be proactive in their approach to creating a Covid-safe workplace and facilitating a safe return for their employees.

There are a number of ways this can be done, such as fitting your workplace with hand sanitising stations and safety screens, as well as providing face masks and sanitising foggers.

You could also introduce a coronavirus testing regime, which is highly effective at preventing the spread of the virus with rapid test kits. This can now be supplemented with the new Covid Safe Passport, which gives employers a real-time overview of the testing status of their entire team.

If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with Covid Safe UK today.

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The app is designed to give businesses peace of mind that their team of employees are Covid safe by giving them full visibility of COVID-19 testing across the organisation.

20 QR codes are supplied with each box of rapid test kits purchased from Covid Safe UK. Employees of organisations should be issued a QR code along with their test kit for each round of testing.

Once they have completed their test, they should then scan their QR code and test cartridge using the CSC Tests app. Following this, users will be prompted to take a photo of themselves in order to be verified.

In turn, a Covid Safe Passport will be generated for the employee. Using a traffic light system, each passport will be colour-coded to show the status of the test result, as well as how recently it was taken. This will allow employers and team leaders to be able to understand, in real-time, the safety of their staff in relation to the virus and their compliance with your testing program, thanks to a portal which gives them a total overview of the organisation.

As we wait eagerly for the vaccine rollout to reach scale in the UK, a regime of regular coronavirus testing is the key to enabling businesses to continue to operate through these testing times.

With the help of this Covid Safe app, organisations can continue comfortably in the knowledge that their testing programs are being delivered efficiently and effectively. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with the Covid Safe UK team today.

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Vast swathes of the economy are currently idle, stuck in a nightmarish limbo which prevents them from trading. Sadly, without swift, efficient solutions to the testing fiasco, many businesses risk total annihilation. The arrival of a vaccine had many celebrating but its lengthy delivery has already dampened the mood.   

News that NHS England and NHS Improvement are ‘planning on the assumption it could vaccinate up to 25 million people with two doses throughout 2021’ is still hugely positive. When combined with an expanded flu vaccination programme, it will help account for an additional 64.1 million vaccinations compared to 2019-20. These are astonishing numbers for a 12-month programme and no small feat.  

Impressive as that is, it fails to address the immediate problems for a worrying-high number of businesses. Frustratingly for them, the numbers do not suggest a quick return to life-before-the-pandemic. Instead, it’s likely to be a long, expensive road before there’s any real, impactful end to the current situation.  

‘We need more testing, it’s as simple as that,’ explains Nick Baxter, founder of Covid Safe UK, a collective of businesses helping other organisations build safe, Covid-secure environments for their workforces. 

‘The government needs to have a better strategy to deliver comprehensive testing programmes. Businesses across the country are absorbing the costs of testing themselves, that’s a necessity if they’re to continue servicing their clients, but the general public needs access to these kits too.  

‘We understand the costs, Covid Safe UK’s Rapid Covid Tests are available at a third of their usual price but that’s still £49 per test or a pack of 20 for £500. If we’re to get the economy moving though, it’s a necessary cost but it’s not something the majority of us can afford to do. That’s why we need more support from the government. It’s the only way to get consumers safely back on the high streets and supporting these businesses.’ 

The costs associated with the UK’s COVID-19 response have been well documented, as has many of the projected costs to come. To put the requirements of a vaccine roll out into perspective, NHS England and NHS Improvement calculate that if three-quarters of the adult population had two doses of vaccine it would need a total of 46,000 NHS staff, with 26,000 of them administering the injection.  

‘That’s why we must look at Rapid Covid Tests as a primary short-term solution to the devastating, long-term impacts on our economy,’ adds Baxter. ‘It’s the only option if we’re to save the hospitality and leisure industries, who simply will not survive another year like this.’ 

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The rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine commenced last week, with care home residents, workers as well as the elderly and most vulnerable first in line to be vaccinated. The government has procured more than 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from a range of companies at a cost of nearly £3bn.

The news of an effective vaccine rollout has been a welcome sight for many of us, offering a light at the end of the tunnel. However, with the news that half of the population may have to wait until 2022 to be vaccinated, it’s essential we continue with preventative measures we have been using so far in the fight against Coronavirus.

This means that testing is still going to be a significant part in the management of the pandemic, as well as continuing with things like social distancing and face masks. While it is still unclear what restrictions will look like as more people receive the vaccine, we will still need to understand how the virus is spreading, and how the spread has been impacted by the vaccination programme. There are also many people who are reluctant to take the vaccine, meaning there will likely be a significant number of vulnerable people at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Alongside vaccines, rapid COVID-19 testing will play a huge part as we aim to get back to some form of normality, enabling people and businesses to identify positive cases much more easily and quickly, giving peace of mind that the chance of the virus spreading is significantly reduced.

As well as buying in bulk, you can now purchase individual rapid COVID-19 testing kits. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with the team today.

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Cases have been rising sharply in areas such as London and Kent, with the capital due to enter tier 3 restrictions. As part of Public Health England‘s monitoring, more than 1,000 cases of the new variant were identified.

This news has led to people worrying about whether existing efforts to combat the virus will still be effective with the new variant, particularly in regards to the rollout of a vaccine. Public Health England and their partners are investigating further to see if the new Covid strain is more contagious, while it is not believed to be any more serious if you do contract it.

It is important to remember that it is common for viruses to mutate. The seasonal flu, for example, can mutate every year, meaning vaccines often have to be adapted. As such, potential mutation of COVID-19 has always been a consideration.

The same things that have been working against the original Coronavirus strain, such as sanitisation, will continue to work for the new strain. As such, it is essential to keep up everything we’ve been doing throughout the pandemic, such as washing hands and wearing face masks, as these will be no less effective against the new strain.

Covid Safe UK offer a range of products to product your employees and customers against viruses, ranging from PPE, hand sanitiser and safety screens through to sanitising foggers and tunnels. If you’d like to find out more about our Covid Safety solutions, get in touch with the team today.

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An addition to this, though, bubbles are an effective way of preventing the virus from spreading amongst your employees, particularly if your business employs a lot of people. It is essentially a way of dividing your workforce into groups of people who will be working together, keeping them separate from other employees with whom they are less likely to need to work alongside.

Splitting your team into bubbles helps with the management of any positive COVID-19 cases within the workplace, as it reduces the amount of contact people have with others. This prevents larger numbers of staff being forced to isolate as a group in the event of a positive case, ultimately reducing its impact on the business.

You could create these bubbles in line with departments, or by which area of your premises the people work in.

It will likely be possible for managers to further divide their teams by forming the smallest practical groups which can be achieved. A micro-bubble may be formed by people working on the same shift pattern or within the same confined area, for example.

Even when in an assigned bubble, it is important that social distancing guidelines are still adhered to where possible, so as to protect colleagues and their families.

Bubble management is just one of many ways of creating a COVID safe workplace. If you’d like to find out more about measures and products you can utilise to protect your team, get in touch with Covid Safe UK today.

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