Passport ‘may be inevitable’

VACCINE passports for air passengers “may be inevitable”, the boss of Gatwick airport has said.

Stewart Wingate said that if brought in, “it’s important it minimises the need for costprohibitive testing and disruptive quarantine measures in order to allow travel to come back ASAP”.

As well as flying, the documents proving the holder has had a Covid jab could theoretically allow people to go to pubs or watch live sports, if venues demand one.

British Airways’ Spanish owner IAG backs the alternative of a health passport, which could be an app showing that someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative. It came as IAG revealed it went £6.8billion into the red last year, from a near £2bn profit in 2019.

THE success of the coronavirus vaccination programme means the over-40s will soon be offered the jab.

To have reached this stage so quickly is a tribute to the NHS staff and the thousands of volunteers who have assisted the rollout.

Thanks to their efforts we can again start to think about life returning to normal with all that entails, from seeing relatives and friends to the chance of a summer break.

Though we should heed the warning of deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Vam-Tam that the battle is far from won.

We should also recognise the vaccination programme still has a long way to go.

The priority now is to reach those entitled to the jab who have not yet received one.

Figures show only 60% of black people over 70 have been vaccinated compared with 75% for South Asians and 90% of white people.

Doctors have also raised fears those in some deprived areas were less likely to have received the jab in the initial stages of the rollout.

More must be done to tackle these discrepancies and make sure the vaccine is available to everyone.