Covid calls last orders at Chelmsford’s pubs
Until a month ago, pub landlord Scott Jones knew only a handful of people who had got Covid. But since then, the majority of the people he knows have had the virus – including his young son, his assistant, who was off work for 10 days, and the people he depends on to deliver supplies to his Chelmsford pub, the Railway Tavern.
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Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
“It was like the perfect storm, it all happened at once,” said Jones, 40, who was left trying to juggle it all with his partner, on top of a 40% drop in pub takings. “There’s so many knock-on effects of it. Every day seems to bring a new challenge.”
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The Essex city is just one of many places up and down the country increasingly struggling to function properly due to Covid staff shortages – affecting everything from bin collections to the local hospital and football team. According to the latest government figures, on Friday there were 410 new cases reported in Chelmsford and one death. In the first week of January, there were 3,198 new cases recorded.
Following issues with certain lagers and CO2 during previous phases of the pandemic, Jones said the latest delivery issues have centred on wine. At the same time, as Covid cases continue to rise, he is worried about the prospect of another lockdown, which he does not think the pub could survive.
“Usually at this time on a Friday every table would be taken and I’d have three staff working,” he said, standing alone behind the bar, above which a sign reads “desperate times call for double measures”.
Customer Phil Elliott, 61, an artist, said he has felt the impact of staff shortages on buses, which are running on a reduced timetable due to “higher than normal” staff sickness caused by Omicron.
At the bus station, a driver said absences are the worst they have been throughout the whole of the pandemic and that they are cutting over 1,600 miles a day of journeys. “It’s stressful,” he said. First Essex apologised to customers and said they are doing everything they can to minimise disruption and that teams are “working extra hard to ensure as many buses run as is possible”.
Meanwhile, at Broomfield Hospital staff are understood to be struggling with extra work and stress as growing numbers of staff fall ill. “Broomfield staff have never known a crisis like this. They’re absolutely wrung out from almost two years of near-constant emergency footing,” said Sam Older, eastern regional organiser at Unison, which is calling for an above-inflation pay rise for NHS staff. “With Omicron running riot, more and more are falling ill. Those left are contending with not only the fear of the virus, but the extra work and stress from the shortages.”
Video: US hospitals seeing different kind of COVID surge this time (Associated Press)
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which oversees the hospital, said Omicron is leading to “higher levels of staff absence”. A spokesperson added: “Our staff are working tirelessly to minimise the impact of this and we have robust plans in place to ensure that patients who urgently need our care continue to receive it.”
Meanwhile, collections of food-waste bins were cancelled for three days last week after 23 drivers – 40% of their total drivers – were off sick following the Christmas break. Councillor Stephen Robinson, the Liberal Democrat leader of Chelmsford City Council, noted that it marked the first change to bin collections of the pandemic. “It was very much an emergency decision, and this week we’re now largely back on track,” he said.
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Collections of food-waste bins were cancelled last week due to staff shortages. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
He said managing services amid soaring infection rates had been a challenge and that leisure centres were having to move staff around to cover for absences. But, he added: “By and large, Chelmsford City Council has coped very well and services have kept running throughout the pandemic.”
Even the football team has been taken down by Covid. Chelmsford City’s match against Braintree Town had to be postponed last Sunday because so many Chelmsford players had tested positive. And for Saturday’s match, against Bath City, Chelmsford’s manager, Robbie Simpson, who has also tested positive, was preparing to coach them remotely via a livestream from isolation.
“Within the space of just over a week we’ve gone from having next to no-one to almost everybody, so it’s been crazy,” said Simpson.
As an NHS worker, Simpson’s wife has had to work from home after his positive test, despite testing negative herself.
Preparing for matches when many of the team have been quarantining has been tough. “Because obviously you can’t really prepare in advance because you never know when someone’s going to get a positive lateral flow,” he said.
One player has converted his garage into a gym so that he can keep training while in isolation.
“It seems like everybody’s getting it at the minute. Obviously, last week there was a big shortage on PCRs and some of the players had to wait at least a couple of days before they were able to get a PCR,” said Simpson. “So that just goes to show you how many people are having to get the PCR tests done … it seems to be affecting everybody and every industry.”
Source: Thanks msn.com