A couple's dream wedding was cancelled with less than 24-hours' notice after staff were pinged by the NHS Covid app.
Sarah, 35, and Darren Alexander, 37, were due to get married at Kings Norton Golf Club in Birmingham on July 17, but the day before they received a devastating call from the venue saying everyone had been forced into self-isolation.
Mrs Alexander, a customer services adviser, said: 'This ''pingdemic'' has gotten out of control. After waiting nearly three years, my entire wedding was cancelled the day before.
'Getting that call and finding out the staff had all been pinged and that the wedding wouldn't go ahead was absolutely soul-destroying.'
It came as Boris Johnson today came under mounting pressure to end the pingdemic by bringing forward the date for exempting fully vaccinated people from self-isolation rules.
Keir Starmer has joined calls to bring the August 16 timetable forward to August 7 - pointing out that is what Wales has chosen to do.
Scotland is also due to remove the requirement for the double-jabbed who come into contact with positive cases from August 9 - but the PM has refused to budge despite stricken businesses warning of food shortages.
Sarah, 35, and Darren Alexander, 37, were due to get married at Kings Norton Golf Club in Birmingham on July 17, but the day before they received a devastating call from the venue saying everyone had been forced into self-isolation
The couple, from Kings Heath, miraculously managed to find a new location, Manor Hill House in Upton Warren, and the wedding went ahead the next day
The Alexanders, from Kings Heath, miraculously managed to find a new location, Manor Hill House in Upton Warren, and the wedding went ahead the next day. But they still feel frustrated at the stress they had to go through.
'Thankfully we found a lovely venue who had a cancellation, but it was the most stressful day of my life,' Mrs Alexander said.
The pair had already been forced to move their wedding three times previously due to changing lockdown rules.
Mrs Alexander asked the golf club if staff could carry out a deep clean and recruit agency staff, but was told this was not possible.
'I had never felt that low and it was not what either of us needed after the year we'd had,' she said. 'I had 190 people coming to our reception to let down.
'But then my friend came across this gorgeous venue called Manor Hill House, in Upton Warren.
'By some miracle, they'd had a cancellation and they actually had availability for the next day.
'They should just ask them to do tests and prove they're negative so they can go back to work. Now staff shortages are causing havoc everywhere. It's unnecessary and crazy.'
Steve Dougan, the club manager at Kings Norton Golf Club, said: 'Sadly just before Sarah and Darren's wedding a new member of our staff was pinged and had to isolate.
'Shortly after he tested positive. Then, nearly every other member of staff at the club was pinged and forced to self-isolate.
'This 'pingdemic' is affecting businesses everywhere and it has been really tough. 'The problem is the NHS Track and Trace app doesn't give anyone information so nobody knows where it's from. It has been disastrous.'
In total, when children sent home to isolate from school are included, there were more than 2.5million people told to quarantine last week — or four per cent of the entire population. However, some people pinged by the app would have also been contacted by Test and Trace. And some of the people who tested positive may have also been pinged or told to self-isolate
A record 1.5million people were asked to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace last week, official data showed yesterday
In recent weeks the government has come under increasing pressure to bring forward the date at which double-vaccinated people will be exempted from self-isolation.
In a round of
