Vaccine passports will be needed for future international travel, PM says
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has today confirmed that Covid-19 vaccine passports will be needed for international travel.
During a visit to Middlesborough, the PM said: “On the issue of vaccine certification, there’s definitely going to be a world in which international travel will use vaccine passports.”
“You can see already that other countries, the aviation industry, are interested in those and there’s a logic to that,” he said.
However, the PM insisted that “the most important thing” is to “continue the rollout of the vaccine programme.”
Reiterating what he mentioned last month, Boris Johnson said that three elements, namely the vaccine, testing and immunity from the virus could work together to be useful in the UK’s exit strategy from coronavirus restrictions.
Despite not elaborating on the use of vaccine passports at the liaison committee in March, Boris Johnson has today hinted that vaccine passports could become a ‘new normal’ for Brits across the UK.
This comes after the European Commission announced a similar Covid passport, namely the Digital Green Certificate, which ensure people can travel safely within the EU in the coming months.
Digital Green Certificates will ensure people can travel safely within the EU this summer.
They will be valid in all EU countries and will include only essential information and secure personal data.
Here’s how they will work ↓ #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/9svIMy8BEz
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) April 1, 2021
The Labour Leader Keir Starmer opposed the plans to use vaccine passports as a way of re-opening society.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: “My instinct is that, as the vaccine is rolled out, as the number of hospital admissions and deaths go down, there will be a British sense that we don’t actually want to go down this road.”
The PM reassured people last month that vaccine passports will not be necessary prior to the re-opening of pub gardens gardens on 12 April.
