FURY OVER COVID ‘PUB PASSPORT’ ON PHONES

REVEALED: Plans for mobile app showing proof of jab, negative test or immunity — but hospitality bosses say it’s madness

MILLIONS MI could go to pubs pub with no social distancing dis under plans to let l drinkers use mobile phones pho to prove they are free of Covid.

As fury erupted over the idea of coro coronavirus ‘ passports’, it eme emerged customers could be allow allowed to rely on an app.

The They could use it to prove they had either had the vaccine, a recent negative test or antibodies from having Covid-19 before. The software would provide a virtual ‘coronavirus certificate’ – probably featuring a scannable QR code – allowing them entry to pubs, clubs and restaurants. It could also be used for football matches, business conferences and even wedding venues, it was claimed last night.

Venues taking part could drop all social distancing rules as an incentive to ask customers to prove their Covid-free status. But for drinkers relying on a negative test, these certificates could be valid for as little as 24 hours. Officials want to modify an existing NHS app to facilitate the ‘passports’ scheme.

The plans are being examined by Michael Gove as part of a review into how they could be used to reopen the economy as soon as possible. However, hospitality bosses branded the idea ‘unworkable, costly and discriminatory’ and Tory MPs said

they were horrified. The row came as:

Figures showed that in the past week, most regions of the country recorded at least one day of no virus deaths;

Deaths fell to a five-month low – a daily average of below 80, compared to more than 1,000 for most of January;

Nearly 40 Tory backbenchers defied the PM and voted against extending ‘draconian’ virus laws for another six months;

EU leaders descended into civil war as Brussels appeared to back away from plans for an export ban on jabs to Britain;

French president Emmanuel Macron delivered a humiliating mea culpa over the bloc’s bungled vaccine rollout;

Figures revealed the pandemic’s devastating toll on families and couples;

It was claimed that AstraZeneca had sacrificed more than £21billion of revenues by selling its vaccine at no profit;

Boris Johnson hinted nurses in England may get a pay rise above 1 per cent after the Scottish government promised a 4 per cent hike for its NHS staff; nUniversities called for students to be allowed back on campuses from April 12 amid concerns they have been ‘forgotten;

The Prime Minister revealed on Wednesday night that Covid ‘passports’ may be needed to go to the pub. Yesterday the first details emerged about how ministers believe that such a scheme might operate. The Mail understands that officials are looking to modify the existing NHS app. After downloading it, people would be able to log in to get details of their vaccination, a recent test showing they did not have the virus, or results of an antibody test showing they are immune as they had already had it. Once a person had one of these three, the phone app would give them a digital certificate that they could present at venues.

This would probably include a QR code that staff could scan to verify it was genuine, along with a picture of the person’s face. Those who do not have the app would be able to request a paper certifithe Cabinet Office Minister Mr Gove is conducting a review into how certificates could be used. The Government is yet to decide details such as how often someone who has not had the vaccine would need to be tested to get a certificate.

Under one option being considered a negative test result would be valid for as little as 24 hours, meaning a person would face the need for daily testing if they wanted to go out regularly.

Ministers also are thinking about issues such as whether people would need to be supervised when using lateral flow tests, which provide results in 30 minutes, rather than allowing them to be conducted at home so they cannot lie about result. The certificates could also be required to attend large gatherings such as sports matches. The Prime Minister yesterday insisted ‘ no decisions have been taken at all’ and that he would say more on the issue early next month.

When Mr Johnson raised the issue of Covid certificates on Wednesday he said it would probably be up to landlords whether they demanded them, but yesterday his spokesman refused to rule out the possibility they could be mandatory.

Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the 70strong Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, said yesterday he was ‘horrified’. He told BBC Radio’s the World At One: ‘We will end up swiping in everywhere.... creating an enormous audit trail of everywhere we’ve been based on our health status. It’s the most extraordinary upending of the principles that I thought the Conservative Party stood for.

‘I’m very clear for me it’s an existential issue, it’s a die in the ditch issue. I will not at any stage be supporting the idea of the public living in the embrace of the state to this extent.’

Tory former minister Dr Liam Fox said: ‘Where the Government were to try to compel individuals to carry some proof of either immunity through vaccine or a negative test, I think that would be completely unacceptable in a country where civil liberties are held so highly and so prized... I would not like to see a Conservative government intervene in the freedom of the private sector to choose the customers that they have.’ Tory William Wragg told MPs: ‘I cannot help but think we have a back of a fag packet- esque approach to this whole question of Covid vaccine certification. If I could be so bold and suggest that as the Conservative Party, we might actually think of what we believe in.’