Trials of jab passports could begin next month
TRIALS of vaccine passports could begin as soon as next month, the Mail can reveal.
Theatres and stadiums are being lined up to pilot the controversial scheme under plans discussed by ministers.
The passports could also be used eventually in pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas.
Pilot schemes will begin after work is completed on an updated version of the NHS Covid app which will let users prove they have been vaccinated.
The plan is a sign Boris Johnson will give vaccine passports the go-ahead on Monday, when he is due to report the interim results of a study led by Michael Gove.
But their introduction is certain to trigger a huge political row. Last night 72 MPs – including libertarian Tories and senior Labour figures – issued a joint statement branding vaccine passports ‘divisive and discriminatory’ and vowing to oppose them. This threatens a major headache for the Prime Minister if he needs legislation to bring the scheme in.
On Tuesday, referring to the question of vaccine passports, Nicola Sturgeon said at her daily briefing: ‘In general terms, I agree it should be looked at.
‘We should consider how we use some kind of vaccine certification to open up more in the future.’
But she added: ‘We’ve got to be careful and considered about how we do that.
‘There are some people who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons, for example, so we need to think through all of this.’
However, Miss Sturgeon confirmed ministers were considering some form of certification and were ‘participating in international and UK-wide work’ on the issue.
The Mail can also reveal that Mr Johnson’s ‘roadmap’ for lifting almost all restrictions by June 21 could now be dependent on a functioning vaccine passport programme.
One Whitehall source last night admitted it is vital if the Government is to hit its target of ending social distancing this summer. Yesterday, the Prime Minister dropped a further hint he has come round to the idea, saying vaccine passports could help to provide ‘maximum confidence to businesses and customers’.
He stressed any scheme would also allow people to show a negative test result or proof they already have Covid antibodies.
Speaking on a visit to Middlesbrough, the Prime Minister said that vaccine passports now looked inevitable for foreign travel. But he suggested they would also have a ‘useful’ role to play domestically. It came as:
■ Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said Covid would eventually have to be managed in a similar way to serious seasonal viruses such as flu;
■ Cases continued to fall after pupils returned to school, in a boost for plans to press ahead with easing lockdown;
■ Another 51 deaths and 4,479 cases were reported;
■ An incredible 93 per cent of over-50s have now been vaccinated;
■ Ministers appeared set to introduce a ‘traffic light’ system to open up flights to countries with low coronavirus rates;
■ Police chiefs warned the public not to bend the rules this Easter weekend;
■ Emmanuel Macron was accused of acting like an arrogant king over France’s new national lockdown.
‘Maximum confidence’
A SCANNER on a door flashes. Approaching it, a person places their smartphone against the device. Moments later, their medical records are approved and they are ushered into the building.
No, not a scene from a futuristic movie set in a data-controlled dystopia. This is how Britons could soon gain access not just to international travel, but also pubs, restaurants, theatres and sports arenas.
Despite imposing the harshest curbs on our freedoms for a year, the Government chillingly plans to extend its tentacles further into our everyday lives.
As we reveal today, as early as next month it will begin trialling vaccine passports.
Polling shows the public will tolerate them. But do they realise where it will all end?
Will public transport become conditional on vaccination too? What about a pass to enter a hospital or doctors’ surgery?
Won’t it discriminate against those who refuse to have the vaccine on medical or ethical grounds?
Such authoritarian tactics might have been warranted when the disease was rampant. But now Britain is reaping the rewards of the vaccination programme surely jab passports will soon be redundant.
Boris Johnson believes that this is the best way to get the economy ticking over, while stifling the disease.
Three centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin said: ‘Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’
His statement holds as true today.