Coronavirus Update | 30 April 2020

Hello, this is the ECA coronavirus update for Thursday, 30th of April.

The eligibility criteria for Coronavirus testing in England has been expanded to include:

all essential workers with symptoms,

anyone with symptoms who cannot work from home,

and their households, if they have symptoms.

Testing aims to show whether or not a person with symptoms currently has COVID-19, and not whether they have a level of immunity.

Visit gov.uk for more.

The Government has begun to make furlough payments to businesses under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, advising businesses claimants that payment takes six working days from when a claim is submitted.

Businesses are advised not to call HMRC to ‘chase’ payment as they will not be able to help before six working days.

Payment should automatically be sent to the bank account nominated in a claim.

ECA has issued a new set of guidance notes for employers and employees.

The first is to help businesses manage sick pay and furloughing arrangements for employees who are off sick, self-isolating or shielding.

The second covers measures employees can take to ensure they do not put their households at risk of infection when they come home from work.

On Thursday 7 May at 11am, ECA’s health and safety experts Paul Reeve and Paul Williams will be discussing ‘closer proximity working on site’ and other health and safety matters.

Visit eca.co.uk/webinars for more information and to sign up.

For more news, and more detail on today’s updates, visit ECA’s dedicated coronavirus website, at www.eca.co.uk/coronavirus.