More furious pub and restaurant owners today came forward to blast the NHS Test and Trace app for causing a staffing crisis, with businesses forced to close because employees are being repeatedly pinged.
Workers must stay at home for up to ten days after coming into contact with a positive case even if they test negative for Covid.
Hospitality chiefs want this changed so that anyone who receives a negative result can go back to work as part of a 'test and release scheme'.
Meanwhile, the NHS is facing similar issues with up to a fifth of staff in parts of the UK off on sick leave and self-isolation notifications increasing the burden on already threadbare rotas.
Even employees who have been double-jabbed and test negative for Covid had to stay at home - a situation healthcare chiefs want changed.
The issue of nurses being off work due to contact tracing and mandatory self-isolation is a 'big issue', one top-level NHS official told The Telegraph.
A senior NHS manager added: 'The rules around [self-isolation] need a rethink. I've got lots of medics who are saying, ''I'm double jabbed, I've done a flow test, I'm negative, can I come back to work?''.'
Hospitality chiefs and NHS bosses are frustrated that the Test and Trace app - for which Matt Hancock (pictured) was a cheerleader - is causing a staffing crisis
Nick Collins, (left) chief executive of the chain Loungers, which runs 173 cafe-bars, has had to temporarily close some sites. Steve Alton, (right) CEO of the British Institute of Innkeeping, called self-isolating staff 'a huge problem'
Meanwhile, NHS consultant Ben Lovell tweeted: 'Desperately desperately desperately understaffed due to the NHS Covid app telling Covid-negative, asymptomatic, double-vaxxed doctors to go into isolation for up to 10 days at a time. This cannot go on.'
New figures out yesterday revealed fewer people who contract Covid are falling badly ill, with just one in 100 NHS beds being taken up by Covid patients in England last week — fourteen times fewer than at the start of the second wave, according to official figures that highlight the power of the vaccines.
The low inpatient numbers are made more impressive by the fact average daily infections have risen to more than 20,000 due to an outbreak of the ultra-infectious Indian variant.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics and the NHS suggest that the number of Britons self-isolating will rise to 1.7million by the end of July, according to analysis by the Adam Smith Institute.
The think-tank's deputy director, Matt Kilcoyne, said Test and Trace was a 'great idea at the height of the previous waves when we had no treatments and no vaccines'.
He added: 'Now it means millions forced to sit at home who pose no risk but are going bear the brunt of lost income, passing the buck on to businesses that will take less income.
'Matt Hancock might well have left office, but we're at risk of his legacy being an app that kills the economy.'
Nick Collins, chief executive of the chain Loungers, which runs 173 cafe-bars, has had to temporarily close some sites.
'It's really challenging,' he told the BBC, adding that he fears the situation 'could get worse' as cases continue to spike.
NHS consultant Ben Lovell tweeted has complained about the problems caused by NHS staff self-isolating despite testing negative and being double-jabbed
He tweeted: 'Desperately desperately desperately understaffed due to the NHS Covid app telling Covid-negative, asymptomatic, double-vaxxed doctors to go into isolation for up to 10 days at a time. This cannot go on'
Mike Reeves, who runs the Yew Tree in Walton le Dale, Preston, closed his site this week after the majority of his staff were alerted by NHS Test and Trace to isolate, costing the pub between £15,000 and £20,000.
He told The Morning Advertiser: 'We've had to shut in a week with decent weather and two England games. We're just left in limbo because everyone has different dates [for when isolation.'
Mr Reeves wants isolation period shortened. 'You just get a ping on your phone and you have no way of knowing what the contact was,' he said.
Graham Harris, chief financial officer at the East London Pub Co, said the issue was 'limiting' his businesses' ability to recover.
Admiral Taverns CEO Chris Jowsey suggested hospitality had been 'unfairly targeted' throughout the pandemic while Steve Alton, CEO of the British Institute of Innkeeping, called self-isolating staff 'a huge problem'.
A single Wetherspoons in Weston-super-Mare this week had 75 members of staff forced to stay at home after coming into contact with positive cases, while Hawksmoor steakhouse in London received 25 test and trace notifications within four weeks of reopening.
Small businesses are particularly struggling under the deluge of app notifications, with one restaurant in Liverpool revealing it lost a quarter of its workforce over the weekend on top of an existing labour shortage caused by Brexit and employees quitting over lockdown.
The nature of the NHS Covid app - which tells people to self-isolate if they have been in 'close contact' with someone who later tests positive - means hospitality staff walking around busy venues are particularly likely to receive notifications.
Close contact means being within two metres of a person who tested positive for the virus for 15 minutes or more or within one metre for one minute or more.
The Cabot Court Hotel, a Wetherspoon pub in Weston-super-Mare, saw 75 staff forced to self-isolate for 10 days last week after four of their colleagues tested positive. Pictured on the left is Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin
Chef Gary Usher has had to close his Manchester restaurant Kala twice because of staff being pinged by the Covid app
Dave Critchley, executive chef and director at Lu Ban restaurant and bar in Liverpool, told MailOnline: 'We lost five people over the weekend at minimal notice after they were pinged by the app.
'When you are only a small business anyway losing five members of staff meant we had lost a quarter of our workforce.
'It was already a monumental task to take on this year to make up all the money we lost from last year because we've still got last year's rent and bills to pay.
'And this is at a time when staff problems are the worst they've ever been because of Brexit and people going into different jobs during lockdown.'
Industry body UKHospitality is urging the government to change the rules so staff can return to work after a negative tests.
The rules currently require a period of 10 days self-isolation after the day of coming into contact with the positive case - regardless of whether they then test negative.
Dave Critchley, executive chef and director at Lu Ban restaurant and bar in Liverpool, told MailOnline: 'We lost five people over the weekend at minimal notice after they were pinged by the app'
Admiral Taverns CEO Chris Jowsey (left) suggested hospitality had been 'unfairly targeted' throughout the pandemic. Graham Harris, (right) chief financial
