A DOCTORS' surgery in Hereford has been forced to shut as staff self-isolate because of coronavirus.

Hereford Medical Group said it had to close Quay House Medical Centre, in Westfaling Street, on Friday, with the "pingdemic" in England continuing.

"We are experiencing a high level of staff absence due to isolation," the group said.

"This is from staff members being contacted by the NHS app."

"This is not unique to Hereford Medical Group with many NHS organisations, and non-NHS organisations, being impacted."

MPs in Westminster and business leaders earlier this month urged Mr Johnson to bring forward the date to ease isolation restrictions after a rise in Covid cases led to a surge in people being "pinged" by the app, which caused disruption to several sectors.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid went on to defend the August 16 date by insisting it was chosen to allow more people to be fully vaccinated – and ultimately reduce the risk of severe illness.

Elsewhere, the UK Government also faced demands to recall Parliament amid concerns that Covid vaccine passports have been introduced by "stealth" via the NHS app.

Confirming the rule change for Wales, Mr Drakeford said: "Self-isolation on symptoms or a positive test result continues to be a powerful measure in helping to break the chains of transmission and stop the spread of the virus.

"It is important we retain this, even for people who have been fully vaccinated.

"But we know a full course of the vaccine offers people protection against the virus and they are far less likely to contract it when they are identified as close contacts.

"This means they no longer need to self-isolate for 10 days.

"We can remove the need for self-isolation for the two million adults who have completed their vaccine course, helping to keep Wales safe and working.

"We are also removing the need for children and young people under 18 to self-isolate, recognising the impact long periods out of school and college is having on their wellbeing and education."

Scotland is also expected to remove the need for fully vaccinated people to isolate on August 9.

Data published on Thursday showed the number of people being told to self-isolate reached another record, with almost 700,000 alerts sent to Covid app users in England and Wales.

The so-called "pingdemic" saw 689,313 alerts sent to users of the NHS Covid-19 app last week telling them they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus.

Some frontline workers are exempt from isolation, including those in prisons, waste collection, defence, the food industry, transport, Border Force and police and fire services.

Daily negative test results enable those eligible workers who have been alerted by the NHS Covid-19 app or called by NHS Test and Trace as coronavirus contacts to continue working.