Ministers confirm vaccine passports WILL be required for large venues

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Nadhim Zahawi today confirmed vaccine passports will be required to gain entry to large venues, arguing the documents are the ‘best way’ to avoid winter Covid closures. 

The Vaccine Minister said the Government is concerned large venues ‘could end up causing a real spike in infections’ because of groups of people mixing in close proximity.

He said the ‘worst thing’ for those venues would be for surging coronavirus case numbers to result in an ‘open shut, open shut strategy’ and the ‘best way’ to ensure they can remain open for the long term ‘is to check vaccine status’. 

Boris Johnson announced back in July that being double-jabbed would be made an entry requirement for all nightclubs in England by the end of September. 

He also signalled the requirement would likely be imposed on other large venues. It is not clear specifically what Mr Zahawi meant by ‘large venues’ 

Many Tory MPs are vehemently against the documents being used, with the Prime Minister facing a significant rebellion on the issue.   

The move on vaccine passports came after official statistics showed Covid cases in the UK are continuing to climb ahead of the return of many schools on Monday. 

The Department of Health recorded a further 37,578 infections yesterday, up from the 32,406 from the previous Saturday. 

It is the biggest week-on-week jump in new cases since August 22, when they rose by 20.2 per cent to 32,253.

Hospital admissions are also creeping up, jumping to 985 on August 31 but deaths with the virus have fallen, dropping 9.8 per cent from the 133 recorded last Saturday to 120 yesterday.  

Mr Zahawi’s comments on vaccine passports came as: 

The Vaccine Minister insisted no decisions have been made about jabs for 12 to 15 year olds, with the UK’s chief medical officers currently examining the matter after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation opted not to recommend the move on health grounds alone. Mr Zahawi guaranteed that parents will be asked for consent should the jabs be recommended for children. Mr Zahawi vowed to do ‘everything in my power’ to avoid another national lockdown. Sajid Javid is reportedly planning to make full vaccination a condition of employment for all NHS staff. Former prime minister Gordon Brown said coronavirus will ‘come back to haunt’ the West unless vaccination rates in African are improved. Government scientific adviser Professor Peter Openshaw said he was ‘a little surprised’ at the JCVI’s decision.

Mr Johnson is expected to face a considerable Conservative rebellion if he does push ahead with his vaccine passports plan. 

The Prime Minister announced back in July that they would be required in nightclubs. 

He said at the time: ‘I don’t want to have to close nightclubs again as they have elsewhere. But it does mean nightclubs need to do the socially responsible thing.

‘As we said last week, we do reserve the right to mandate certification at any point if it’s necessary to reduce transmission.

‘And I should serve notice now that by the end of September, when all over 18s have had their chance to be double jabbed we’re planning to make full vaccination the condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather.’

The Government has faced mounting Tory backbench anger over the vaccine passports plan, with critics arguing the documents are unnecessary and infringe on individual freedoms.  

Mr Zahawi was asked this morning if the Government had made up its mind on the issue. 

He told Sky News: ‘We are looking at by the end of September, when everyone has had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated for the large venues, venues that could end up causing a real spike in infections, where we need to use the certification process.

‘You look at what the FA have done, have done so brilliantly, in terms of checking vaccine status to reopen football, that is the sort of right thing to do and we are absolutely on track to continue to make sure that we do that.

‘There is a reason for that, the reason being that I, as does the Prime Minister, want to make sure the whole economy remains open.

‘The worst thing we can do for those venues is to have a sort of open shut, open shut strategy because we see infection rates rise because of the close interaction of people, that is how the virus spreads, if people are in close spaces in large numbers, we see spikes appearing.

‘The best thing to do then is to work with the industry to make sure that they can open safely and sustainably in the long term and the best way to do that is to check vaccine status.’

It came as Mr Zahawi insisted the Government is yet to make a final decision on whether healthy 12 to 15-year-olds should be vaccinated against coronavirus. 

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) decided against backing the move on health grounds alone because Covid-19 presents such a low risk to younger teenagers. 

But Professor Chris Whitty and the three other chief medical officers in the UK are reviewing the wider benefits of vaccinating the age group, such as minimising school absences, and are expected to present their findings within days.

The Government is awaiting their advice before making a final decision but ministers have indicated they are keen to authorise a wider rollout.

Mr Zahawi said if the UK’s chief medical officers recommend vaccination then it ‘absolutely’ is the right thing to do, but he said he does not want to ‘pre-determine’ that. 

Speaking on Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme, Mr Zahawi said: ‘We have not made any decisions, so we haven’t decided not to listen to the experts.

‘On the contrary, all four ministers, the Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, and his fellow ministers in the devolved administrations have agreed to ask the chief medical officers to convene expert groups, including the JCVI being in that, to be able to recommend which way we should go on healthy 12 to 15-year-olds.’

He said parents of healthy 12 to 15-year-olds will be asked for consent if coronavirus jabs are approved for their children.

‘I can give that assurance, absolutely,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which advises the Government, told BBC Breakfast he is ‘a little surprised’ at the JCVI’s decision.

‘We do know the virus is circulating very widely amongst this age group, and that, if we’re going to be able to get the rates down and also prevent further surges of infection perhaps later in the winter, then this is the group that needs to become immune,’ he said.

‘And the best way to become immune is through vaccination, and there’s never been as much information as this in the past. To think there hasn’t been enough research is completely wrong.’

Prof Openshaw added: ‘To my mind, the public health benefit is very, very important, and we have to take the wider view that, unless we do get infection rates down amongst this particular part of the population, it will be very, very hard to prevent further large recurrences (of Covid-19).

‘I would say that teenagers are often amongst the most altruistic and the most generous people in society. They often think very deeply about these moral and ethical issues and they want to protect others as well.

‘So I would think that a lot of teenagers, actually, if they see the evidence in the round, would prefer to be vaccinated.’

On Friday, the JCVI approved a widening of the vaccination programme to another 200,000 children aged between 12 and 15 who have underlying health conditions.

But they stopped short of recommending the full rollout after investigating potential side-effects, such as the extremely rare events of inflammation of the heart muscle, known as myocarditis, after Pfizer or Moderna vaccinations.

While the condition can result in short periods of hospital observation, followed by typically swift recoveries, the JCVI concluded that the medium to long-term outcomes are still uncertain and more follow-up time is needed to get a clearer picture.

Professor Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI’s chairman of Covid-19 immunisation, said the group’s view is that the benefits of vaccinating the age group ‘are marginally greater than the potential harms’ but that the benefits are ‘too small’ to support a universal rollout at this stage.