Rise in Omicron cases may lead to staff shortage ‘very quickly’

Alarming rise in the number of coronavirus cases could “very quickly” lead to staff shortages in shops and among food suppliers and delivery drivers, stated recent reports on Sunday (19), citing warnings by UK’s top executives of the food industry.

One food industry chief described the situation as “a race to see which gets there first – Omicron or Christmas”, Mail reported stating that food industry leaders are keeping a watch on the spread of Covid-19 among employees. 

Most big stores groups are only just beginning to see the effects of staff shortages – with several saying that the number of employees self-isolating still ranks as a “very low single digit percentage” of the workforce but “biggest worry now is how fast the numbers go up”, report said.

“Astonishing” rise in new cases is expected to inevitably hit operations to some degree in the next fortnight though Covid-19 absences in shops are rising “quite sharply”, reports said.

Many food shops reported to have observed a sudden increase in the number of customers in recent days mainly due to shoppers topping up their food cupboards to prepare for a weekend at home and also doing festive shopping a week ahead.

Stores are likely to remain busy for next three to four days.

“People don’t usually buy their Christmas food until the last week,” a retail executive told the media outlet. 

“But shoppers are starting to think one step ahead of events. So there could be even more of a rush over the next few days as people try to get it out of the way.”

PwC retail strategy director Kien Tan said that this is a terrible time for hospitality and a terrible time for travel. But in terms of buying stuff – especially if people think they’re going to be at home more – its going to be “quite a good Christmas overall for retailers”.