This morning George Eustice has said the army remain “on stand-by” to help with the shortage of key staff, however they’re not needed yet. Not quite the headlines No. 10 were hoping for during the unlocking process…

The declaration came as the government introduces new lists of key workers who will now get preferential treatment to reduce cases of the pingdemic. Under the new rules, 10,000 food supply chain workers – vaccinated or not – will be allowed to take daily Covid tests rather than self-isolate when pinged. The BBC pointed out that this doesn’t include the whole food supply chain however – not least the actual shelf-stackers:

A separate list has also been drawn up by the government of “vital industries”, who are also entitled to access a different set of exemptions. Under the list of 16 vital industries, bosses will be able to contact the relevant department and request a limited number of exemptions for specific named workers who may need to be exempt. Yet more layers of pandemic rule complexity…