A record 618,903 people in England and Wales were pinged by the NHS COVID-19 app in a week, latest figures show.

The alerts were sent to users of the app in the week to 14 July, telling them they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus and to self-isolate.

The figure is up on the 520,194 recorded for England in the previous week.

It is the first set of figures since the majority of restrictions were lifted in England last Monday.

Many experts have been predicting that the relaxing of regulations would lead to a surge in cases as the virus spreads rapidly through the unvaccinated population.

But, while nearly seven in 10 adults have the protection of two jabs, currently all of those are required to isolate if told to by NHS Test and Trace.

Speaking to Kay Burley on Thursday, Kwasi Kwarteng said the government was “very concerned” about the numbers of people being pinged by the NHS app, who are also expected, but not required, to isolate.

Mr Kwarteng said ministers were “monitoring” the situation and would be setting out a list of exempt critical workers “very soon”, with the expectation that it will be published on Thursday.

The consequence of what has been dubbed the recent “pingdemic” has been reports of empty shelves in some supermarkets, businesses left without staff and delays in supplies reaching consumers.

Lidl, Iceland and Sainsbury’s were among those on Thursday that reported problems in stores as a result of rising rates of infection.

Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, told Sky News’ Ian King Live programme: “The situation is concerning and it’s up and down the supply chain.

“It’s not consistent across the country. There are some places where shops and factories are working perfectly normally and in other parts… in manufacturing, there are some places where a lot of factories under extreme pressure… because they may have up to 25% of the staff off.

“Increasingly the cause is pinging and it’s getting worse. In manufacturing, it’s certainly a problem. It’s particularly a problem in abattoirs.

“There’s been a lot written about the issues of distribution drivers and HGV. And we know from this morning’s coverage that there were really severe problems in hospitality as well… Where it’s happening, it’s bad.”

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