WORLD

Michael Gove says ‘no plans’ for vaccine passports to get entry into venues

1 December, 2020
David Clews

The UK government is not planning to issue “vaccine passports” to people who have had a coronavirus jab according to Michael Gove. These comments come just 24 hours after the newly appointed vaccines minister said it was looking at the technology.

Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said customers would not need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to go to pubs, restaurants, theatres or sports events.

Asked on Tuesday morning whether the government was considering introducing vaccine passports, he told Sky News: “No, that’s not being planned.”

He added: “I certainly am not planning to introduce any vaccine passports and I don’t know anyone else in government who is.”

His comments come a day after Nadhim Zahawi, who is the Minister responsible for overseeing the vaccine programme, indicated that customers who had turned down the inoculation could be refused entry to pubs. He said that while having the vaccine would not be compulsory, businesses such as pubs and restaurants might require proof that people have been vaccinated before allowing them in.

Zahawi said: “We are looking at the technology. And, of course, a way of people being able to inform their GP that they have been vaccinated. But, also, I think you’ll probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues, sports venues, will probably also use that system – as they have done with the [test and trace] app.”

 Gove has now pushed back on this saying: “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, that’s not the plan. What we want to do is to make sure that we can get vaccines effectively rolled out.

Of course, individual businesses have the capacity to make decisions about who they will admit and why. But the most important thing that we should be doing at this stage is concentrating on making sure the vaccine is rolled out.”

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