LONDON — The British government has sought to ease food supply pressures in England by exempting more than 10,000 workers from quarantine rules that led to staff shortages and fears of panic-buying.

However, it has come under criticism Friday for being too hasty in lifting coronavirus restrictions in England and for not doing more to help other crucial sectors, such as transport, the emergency services and energy industry.

In an announcement late Thursday following mounting pressure from increasingly vexed retailers, it outlined plans for daily COVID-19 testing of critical food industry workers that will effectively allow those who test negative to continue working even if they have been notified on their phones to self-isolate due to contact with someone with the virus.

The move, along with a limited relaxation of self-isolation rules for “critical workers” in other key sectors and vital public services came amid growing concerns within government of the impact of the so-called ‘pingdemic’ on many key sectors of the British economy.

Many critics say the National Health Service’s app, which has been downloaded by around half the adult population in England and Wales, since it launched last September, has being unfairly singled out. They say it’s a distraction from the fact that the U.K. is in the midst of a third surge of the pandemic as a result of the spread of the more contagious delta variant and the lifting of lockdown restrictions.

The app, they say, is just doing its job and self-isolation remains a key weapon in the fight against the virus.

With daily infections predicted by the government to at least double to 100,000 this summer, the number of people being pinged will inevitably grow.

Still, many individuals have taken matters into their own hands. There’s growing evidence pointing to people deleting the app, turning off Bluetooth when they go into areas, such as hospitals, where they could potentially come into close proximity with someone who may have COVID-19.