BACK-TO-SCHOOL JABS FOR UNDER-18s
BOOSTER jabs are set to be compulsory for travel abroad and care home staff in plans under discussion by Ministers.
A source close to the talks about Covid certification told The Mail on Sunday: ‘ The assumption is that you will be required to have t h e most u p - t o - d a t e h e a l t h passport. So if the advice is to have a booster six months after your second jab, then that is what you’ll need.’
At the moment, double-jabbed Brits can go to amber list countries without having to quarantine upon their return.
Booster vaccines will be compulsory for care home workers once they are rolled out, a senior Government source said. This will add to the legal requirements for home staff, who from October will have to be doublejabbed to work in the sector, subject to parliamentary approval.
Millions are set to be offered a t hird j ab from September after Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced the roll-out to priority groups.
A Minister told the Mail on Sunday the ‘logical’ move will be to make the booster shots a requirement for travel, adding that the most up-todate Covid certification for travel will become as normal as the need to have a yellow fever jab to enter certain countries.
Last night Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said: ‘If I were the Government I would tread carefully on this. Booster jabs will take a while to get to the majority of the travelling public.
‘And there are issues around whether they are necessary– some scientists say that they may not be necessary.’
Meanwhile talks about what booster jabs will mean for domestic certification are still at an early stage within Government.
One insider said that, as domestic passports have only been announced for nightclubs, discussions over whether boosters will one day be required for entry are still in ‘very early days’.
The Government will make its decision on boosters following final advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which is reviewing the scientific evidence on the third jabs.
The JCVI previously issued interim advice in June that Brits ‘ should be prepared’ for another round of inoculations.
The roll- out would work in two stages, beginning with the over-70s, care home residents, extremely vulnerable people and health and care workers. Then all over-50s and under- 50s with long- term health problems would be offered t he booster vaccine.
Mr Javid said last week: ‘When it comes to booster jabs we are waiting for the final advice from JCVI... and when we get that advice we will be able to start the booster programme, but I anticipate it will begin in early September, so I’m already making plans for that.
‘It’s really important that when we start that programme, the sort of first cohorts, the ones that got the jabs early on when we started our programme – the first in the world back in December last year – that those cohorts come first and so we will be prioritising it.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘We are preparing for a booster programme to ensure those most vulnerable to Covid- 19 have protection extended ahead of winter and against new variants.
‘ Any booster programme will be based on the final advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
‘Until we receive the independent JCVI advice no decisions can be made on wider requirements for those who receive booster jabs.
‘The phenomenal vaccine rollout is building a wall of defence across the country, with over 66,900 hospitalisations prevented and more than 84,000 lives saved.’