Children given digital Covid passes ‘to save half term’
CHILDREN are to be given access to digital Covid passes in time for half term, as the Government prepares to announce relaxations to travel rules today.
Ministers are expected to agree to scrap a range of measures at a meeting of the Covid-operations committee this morning, including tests for travellers arriving in the UK.
The changes are likely to be implemented in early February, allowing British holidaymakers to take advantage of the more lenient rules over the next school holidays.
Children aged 12 to 15 will finally be granted access to the NHS Covid pass app. At present, they are excluded from using it, curbing their ability to easily prove their jab status.
This has been an issue for families travelling to countries such as France, Italy and Spain, which require all over-12s to prove that they are double vaccinated, or face tougher restrictions such as quarantine or daily testing.
Parents are forced to request an NHS letter confirming the vaccination status of their under-16s if they wish to evade these measures.
Steve Brine, former health minister, branded the process “cumbersome” and had called on the Government to “urgently find a way” for teenagers to be treated with “fairness and parity” when seeking to travel abroad.
The Prime Minister has also stressed that “ease of travel” should be one of the benefits of receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
A Government source stressed the relaxations were not “formally decided” and had yet to pass through the Covid-operations committee today, but were strongly expected to be approved.
The Daily Telegraph revealed last week that families had been forced to cancel holidays next month because of the “restrictive” jab passport demands.
Parents made the decision to pull out of, or postpone, overseas trips after spending weeks trying, without success, to secure proof of their children’s jab status or confirmation that they had recently recovered from Covid.
Meanwhile, the move to scrap tests for travellers returning to the UK will save a family of four around £120 on a trip overseas. Travel companies have reported increases of up to 200 per cent in visits to their sites or bookings since Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, first signalled that tests for inbound travellers would be dropped.
The chief executives of the UK’S largest airlines want an end to all coronavirus-related travel restrictions. They have argued in a letter to ministers that omicron is in retreat and evidence shows that travel restrictions have a “limited effect” in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Their letter is signed by the heads of Ryanair, Easyjet, Loganair, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Jet2, as well as the chief executives of holiday travel group Tui and trade body Airlines UK.
They said that travel restrictions have had a devastating effect on the UK’S economy, with only marginal health benefits.
“This has meant fewer business trips and less investment in our economy, fewer chances for holidays and to reunite with friends and family abroad, and fewer international visitors,” the airline chiefs wrote.