Covid pass alert brings little cheer to pub industry
PUB owners have reacted angrily to the news that Covid passes could be introduced in pubs and restaurants next month, slamming the Welsh Government for “injecting uncertainty” into the hospitality industry.
The Welsh Government has said that Covid passes may have to be used in pubs and restaurants over Christmas to keep them open, but First Minister Mark Drakeford said no decision would be made on extending the pass to the hospitality sector until early December.
The suggestion comes after no changes were made to Wales’ Covid rules at the latest three-week review, with the country staying at alert level zero.
Mr Drakeford confirmed on Wednesday that restrictions would remain the same and the country would stay on alert level zero. The case rate in Wales has fallen to 507.4 per 100,000 people, and is no longer the highest in the UK, having dipped slightly below Northern Ireland, where the case rate is 509.2.
But the First Minister warned of a fourth wave of the virus sweeping across Europe, and said extending the Covid pass system across the hospitality sector in future weeks remained an option should cases soar again. Passes were extended to cinemas, theatres and concert halls in Wales earlier this week, while they were also needed for nightclubs and large events and venues.
However, while the Welsh Government has said it is committed to working with the sector to prepare for
Christmas, introducing passes to pubs and restaurants this winter remains an option – prompting those in the industry to fiercely criticise the suggestions after an incredibly difficult 18 months.
Emma Downey, co-owner of Tides Kitchen & Wine Bar in Newport, Pembrokeshire, told BBC Radio Wales that she believed Covid passes “have no place” in pubs or wider society.
“It seems to be never-ending doom and gloom from our First Minister and it’s making everything just really, really difficult,” she said.
“In my opinion, Covid passports have no place in our industry or in society in general, and I would be very, very loath to implement them at my business.
“I never knew even being open at Christmas was in any question in any doubt – that’s kind of news to us. We were looking forward to a more normal Christmas, which is how I think Mark Drakeford described it a few weeks ago, and now we’re going into yet more uncertainty.
“It’s just not good enough – we’re constantly taking the brunt of all these regulations and everything. It’s
just too much for us now.
“I want to see the scientific evidence that Covid passes make any difference to the Covid cases because I don’t think there is any out there. They’re just asking too much of us.”
Ms Downey also questioned how pubs and restaurants, which had faced major staffing issues in recent months, would be able to manage the introduction of passes.
“Where are we going to find the extra staff to manage this, how would it all work?” she asked.
“They’re not there – I was looking for extra staff in the summer and I didn’t get a single application for a job advert that I put up. We were really, really busy during the summer months, and we had literally nobody coming through.
“Two years ago, I was constantly getting emails from students, from people who were looking for work – but I haven’t had an email since the start of the pandemic from anybody looking for employment in this industry.
“So it’s already really, really difficult, and we don’t need any more hindrance. We just need to be able to open safely as we have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic, we don’t need any further restrictions.”
Simon Buckley, chairman of the Brewers of Wales, said that he was “by no means reassured” by the Welsh Government’s latest comments, saying the industry needed optimism, rather than “more doom and gloom”.
“Yet again, the Welsh Government has injected a high degree of uncertainty into people’s minds,” he said. “What hospitality needs as a sector and pubs in particular, is hope. We need optimism, we need the determination that we are going to be able to trade over Christmas and that we’ll be able to do so unfettered and without undue influence.
“There is fear and a lack of hope. We face the equivalent of four winters on the trot, we are in a position where the industry is on its knees, and we are facing staff shortages, not caused by Brexit or by anything else, but by this constant fear. Why would somebody want to work in our industry with this continued uncertainty? Government ministers have got to wake up, smell the coffee and realise that they need to inject some enthusiasm and determination into our industry.”
Mr Buckley, who was hospitalised for more than three months with Covid, questioned whether introducing passes was “the right thing to do” for the industry and said he was concerned that doing so might cause people to stay away from pubs, sparking a “rural pub disaster”.
“Another lockdown for our industry would be the terminal death knell, but are Covid passports the right thing to do? All I will say is that we need to stop the uncertainty. The moment you introduce this whole idea of a passport, it then becomes an issue of ‘are pubs safe to go to?’.”
He added: “The reality remains in our industry that there is a base point at which it becomes uneconomic to open. If we find ourselves in a position where people shy away from pubs this Christmas because they have to have a passport, or indeed they feel that there’s this massive uncertainty caused by the issuing of the Covid passport, then we will end up with a rural pub disaster.
“It’s not far off at the moment, it’s just around the corner and many of the pubs in Cardiff city centre, where we have one, are suffering too because there are no office workers.
“We’ve only got to look at what Covid passports have done to the nightclub industry. Their trade is down since the introduction of passports by 30%. Now that’s from a pretty low base as a starting point. We can’t have this continued uncertainty. Would you book a Christmas party at the moment if you had this continued uncertainty?
“I know what it’s like to be on the wrong end of Covid. The reality remains, whether we like it or not, that the disease is out there. We have to come to terms with the disease, we have to give people the confidence that the safest places to go are pubs and that controlled environment where people are encouraged to behave properly and keep a sensible and social distance.
“But the most important thing of all is to give the industry some hope. We are battered, bruised and on our knees – we need to get back up and get going.”
Speaking on Sky News, Wales’ Health Minister Eluned Morgan, pictured, said the Welsh Government would be “keeping an eye on the situation” as we approach Christmas.
She said: “What we haven’t done this time, which was a possibility, was introduce [passes] into hospitality settings because those rates have come down.
“We will be keeping an eye on the situation and keeping that under review as we enter the Christmas period. Hopefully, if these rates continue to fall we won’t have to do that, but we are concerned, though, about the pressure on the NHS, which is very intense at the moment.”
Asked about where the bar would be set, she told presenter Kay Burley: “As ever, it’s set in terms of whether the NHS will become overwhelmed and under serious pressure.
“We’ve got other factors pushing the NHS – we’re expecting a very intense flu period. We’ve people who have saved up their problems in the pandemic and are now coming forward.”