Covid vaccination plan for pubs ‘fraught with difficulties’
PUBLICANS have said Boris Johnson’s suggestion it could be left up to them to decide whether to only permit customers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus is ‘fraught with difficulties’.
The prime minister said on Wednesday that it ‘may be up to individual publicans’ whether they require customers to have a ‘Covid vaccination certificate’. Minister Michael Gove is reviewing the possible use of coronavirus status certificates under plans to ease England’s lockdown.
But the use of certificates may not be as straightforward as vaccine or no vaccine, as recent negative test status may also be considered and landlords may be incentivised to employ them.
Speaking following the mooted idea, Steve Hudson, landlord at The Kings, Albert Road, Southsea, said: ‘It will be pretty tricky to introduce especially for the regular pub customer who just walks in.
‘You’ve got groups like pregnant women (who are not vaccinated) who will be excluded. It will be difficult to weed out who’s had the vaccination and who hasn’t.
‘It is fraught with difficulties. I don’t think it is practical.’
Steve Kingsley, owner of Kingsley's in Osborne Road, Southsea, said: ‘It’s a difficult one because you want the finance but you don’t want people to catch it (Covid). It probably would affect us.
‘You don’t know how people will react.
‘You will lose a group of customers if one of them hasn’t been vaccinated and they all leave.
‘It is practicable though. If everyone were to bring an ID card like at sport then people would get use to it and it could work.’
Meanwhile trade bodies said making access conditional on jabs is ‘simply unworkable’ and would cause ‘conflict’ between staff and punters.