London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Test-and-trace rules ‘wreaking havoc’ for pubs and restaurants

Test-and-trace rules ‘wreaking havoc’ for pubs and restaurants

Hospitality bosses warn of backdoor lockdown if self-isolation rules are not changed when Covid restrictions end

Bars, pubs and clubs may be forced into a backdoor lockdown beyond 19 July unless the government changes test-and-trace rules, industry bosses have warned.

Businesses across the country from Edinburgh to Chester, Oxford and London are being hit by waves of closures as staff are forced to self-isolate after being alerted by the NHS test and trace app over coming into contact with someone with Covid.

Under the current rules, workers who have come within 2 metres of a person with the virus must stay at home for 10 days even if they are vaccinated and have tested negative.

“The current guidelines are wreaking havoc among hospitality businesses and in essence enacting a further lockdown on large parts of the sector,” said Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of the trade body UKHospitality.

“If we continue down this road we will be besieged by individual business lockdowns, hindering the recovery of the sector as we start to ease restrictions,” said Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industry Association, which represents thousands of pubs, clubs and bars.

“We are being inundated with businesses having to close due to staff being notified by test and trace, meaning thousands of workers are having to be sent home under the current isolation guidelines.”

About 400,000 people were reportedly instructed to quarantine last week by NHS test and trace staff or their NHS Covid app. The Adam Smith Institute thinktank has suggested that the number of people self-isolating could rise to 1.7 million by the end of next month.

The isolation rules and NHS app are causing havoc for businesses around the country with some towns seeing large parts of their entertainment district shuttered for weeks on end.

The Zuger’s of Chester coffee house and restaurant had to close after a group of staff were alerted by the NHS test and trace app.


In Chester about 20 venues were forced to close in different waves over about three weeks.

“You get up and running again, you think: ‘That’s it we’re back’ and then all of a sudden you’re closed again,” says Lee-Ann Helbling, the manager of Zuger’s coffee shop and restaurant in Chester. The venue had to close after a group of staff went for drinks elsewhere and were alerted by the NHS app that they had come into contact with a positive case.

“It needs someone to stand up and say this nonsense has got to stop,” says William Lees-Jones, the managing director of JW Lees, which runs 42 managed pubs and hotels in north-west England.

He says the number of his staff being asked to self-isolate by the NHS app has tripled in past few weeks from about 20 to more than 60 with the vast majority of those not ill or testing positive for Covid.

The group has had to close six venues as staff have been forced to self-isolate after being alerted by the NHS test and trace app on top of about a dozen that remain closed because they are music venues or too small to accommodate social-distancing measures.

“It has been a nightmare,” says Lees-Jones.

“With test and trace [the government] seems to have spent a lot of money on it and it doesn’t work. People have got to be asking big questions. We can’t have hundreds of thousands of people isolating because of a technology system, particularly when they aren’t ill.”

Ministers have considered plans to allow those who have had both Covid jabs to take daily tests instead, but it is not clear if changes will be in place by 19 July when lockdown is eased further.

UKHospitality is calling for a “test and remain” system in which vaccinated staff who have not tested positive for Covid can carry on working even if they have come into contact with a person carrying the virus.

“Testing needs to play a crucial role in how we learn to live with the virus and releasing people from isolation. We can no longer have a system that requires healthy, vaccinated and uninfected people to stay at home rather than go to work,” said Nicholls.

While many Chester venues have reopened, they fear more closures soon unless the rules are changed. And business owners warn the financial costs are mounting up, putting local jobs at risk.

The Chester Townhouse hotel was forced to close for nine days after a member of the kitchen staff tested positive.


One of the town’s bars, Telford’s Warehouse, closed for a week after a member of the kitchen staff was pinged by the NHS app and he had been in contact with both serving and back-of-house members. While all tested negative at the time, they had to remain off work.

“It is a precarious situation,” says the bar’s owner, Jeremy Horrill. “I lost thousands of pounds of profitability. Everybody went back on furlough that could. I lost stock as we are a real ale pub and nothing lasts more than a week. It is completely down to the luck of the draw.”

Steven Hesketh, the owner of the Townhouse hotel, said he made a “huge loss” when his business was forced to close for nine days after a member of the kitchen staff caught Covid.

The venue is now open, but Hesketh is having to work in the kitchen this weekend as one of his members of staff is isolating while a family member waits for test results.

“We are holding out for 19 July, but if that doesn’t come with some solution on isolation we may still have to close if another outbreak comes in our small team,” Hesketh says.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×