McDonald's ran out of milkshakes at all UK operations

The US fast food giant McDonald's ran out of milkshakes at all UK operations due to supply chain problems. The well-known burger vendor was also left without bottled beverages at its 1,250 operations in England, Scotland and Wales. A spokesman said the group was having problems with the supply chain, but was "working hard to return these items to supply". McDonald's is another company hit by supply problems after Nando's network was forced to close about 50 restaurants last week due to a shortage of chickens. Suppliers are said to lack employees and there are few truck drivers. Competitive KFC also recently pointed out problems with the supply chain, for which it had to temporarily exclude some items from the offer. Businesses across sectors in Britain are facing supply chain crises, which are particularly lacking in truck drivers. This is due, on the one hand, to the new immigration rules for European Union (EU) citizens after Brexit, as well as to the restrictions associated with COVID-19, in particular compulsory quarantine. The number of drivers is also reduced by the so-called pingdemia, which is the name for mandatory self-isolation for 10 days in the case of people whose government application identified as close contact with someone who had a positive test for COVID-19. Business groups representing the retail and transport sectors have already called on the government in London to review plans to issue temporary work visas for EU drivers. At the end of July, the Financial Times wrote that in the week to July 14, the British health service's NHS application ordered self-isolation for a record 600,000 people. The number of "pings" from the NHS Covid Test and Trace application that informed people that they were in close contact with a coronavirus positive increased by 17%. In the same week, which ended on 14 July, the daily number of new cases of COVID-19 in Britain rose by more than 60%, reaching its highest point since mid-January.