Original title: a large number of British "secret contact" employees quarantined the supply of gas stations in supermarkets. Source: CCTV news client.

According to the latest statistics released by the British government on the 24th, there have been 31795 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK in the past 24 hours, but it is said that due to "technical reasons", other epidemic-related data need to be released late. Based on the accumulated data on the 23rd, a total of 5669770 cases have been confirmed in the UK; by the 23rd, 129044 cases died within 28 days after the diagnosis.

A large number of "close contact" employees quarantined the supermarket gas station and could not supply the goods.

The recent sharp rebound in the epidemic in the UK has led to a surge in confirmed cases and a sharp increase in the number of people who have been quarantined at home due to close contact with confirmed patients.Supermarkets, restaurants and gas stations in many places in the UK are seriously understaffed due to the isolation of a large number of staff at home, causing concern that supermarkets are empty, restaurants are unmanned and gas stations have no fuel to fill.

According to the current monitoring and tracking mechanism operated by the NHS, the British public health system, once a person is found to have been in close contact with COVID-19, he or she will be notified by mobile phone to stay in quarantine for 10 days.

With the spread of the more contagious "Delta" variant strain, the UK has recently entered a new epidemic peak with an average of more than 40,000 new confirmed cases a day. In this case, more and more people are informed of home isolation. According to the National Health Service, nearly 620000 people in England and Wales received self-quarantine notices in a week from the 8th to 14th of this month.

A number of large supermarket chains in the UK warned on the 22nd of this month that as more and more employees were notified of home isolation, many stores could not find hands to transport, organize and put goods on shelves. Inventory has bottomed out and supermarkets are empty.

Some gas station operators also confirmed that many truck drivers are unable to go to work because of home isolation, resulting in emergency inventory at some gas stations and will soon be out of oil to sell. Earlier, BP said that due to home isolation of many truck drivers and gas station employees, a number of BP gas stations could not supply fuel and had to be temporarily closed.

In order to deal with these problems, the British government announced on the 22nd that it would adjust the home quarantine policy, saying that employees of some supermarket warehouses and food manufacturers "can provide vaccination certificates or nucleic acid test negative certificates". So even if you have had a "close contact" experience, you do not need home isolation. However, the exemption does not cover supermarket store employees.

Previously, due to a shortage of health care personnel, the British government has announced that under special circumstances, vaccinated health care workers will be exempted from isolation and continue to work after close contact with COVID-19 patients.

(editor Zhao Hanqing)