City businesses urged to keep following rules and stop rise in COVID infections

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The City of London Corporation is urging businesses to follow the rules after concerns that there have been COVID outbreaks because of poor compliance with social distancing guidelines in some workplaces and hospitality settings.

Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Community & Children’s Services Committee, Ruby Sayed, said whilst everyone in the country is eager to reach Step 4 of the Government’s Roadmap – which would end all legal limits on people’s social contact – we need to ensure that all steps are taken to halt the rise in infection rising across the capital.

Public Health England has confirmed that the Delta variant – first identified in India – is more transmissible than the version that sparked the winter wave – the Alpha variant first seen in Kent.

Having both doses of the vaccine does, however, provide good protection against all of the current known variants of concern and all workers and residents are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated when they become eligible. Having your second vaccination on time is especially important to further strengthen the protective effects of vaccination.

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Firms are being reminded that everyone who can work from home should do so, and to ensure workplaces are COVID-secure, including social distancing, hand washing, high levels of fresh air ventilation and mask wearing in appropriate spaces.

People who cannot work from home should follow the COVID secure guidelines of hands, face, space and fresh air and get tested twice a week.

City businesses can collect free rapid home testing kits for their employees from Square Mile testing sites and employees can collect test kits from community pharmacies as well. For more information, you can visit cityoflondon.gov.uk/covid19testing.

Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Community & Children’s Services Committee, Ruby Sayed, said “We are calling on all firms to follow the rules after concerns that there have been an increase in COVID outbreaks because of poor compliance with social distancing guidelines.

“The UK is now at a crossroads ahead of Step 4. Businesses have a leading role to play in stopping this virus and it is important that companies, who may see an increase in staff coming back to offices over the coming weeks, stick to the rules to protect their employees and the public.”

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