Vaccine passport mandates will no longer be going ahead in England. Health secretary Sajid Javid delivered the news to the BBC yesterday!
This is fantastic news for the English nightlife industry, who have been warning that such a scheme would cripple the industry — in part because they would lose the ‘’spur of the moment’’ club-goers, which would effectively eliminate any profit margin.
It was only a week ago when a spokesperson for Boris Johnson confirmed the scheme would go ahead as planned from October 1st, originally announced back in July.
In response, Michael Kill, CEO of NTIA (Night Time Industries Association) said:
“Following an intense political and public campaign by the NTIA, its members and wider industry supporters, we welcome the comments from the Health Secretary this morning regarding the government’s decision to scrap the planned mandate of Covid Passports from the end of September.”
“We hope that businesses will now be able to plan for the future with some degree of certainty, regain confidence from customers and the workforce and start to rebuild a sector that has consistently been at the sharp end of this pandemic.”
Here was Sajid Javid on the BBC:
Whilst the news is certainly a short term win for the industry, this fight isn’t over just yet – with Downing Street also saying the scheme would be kept “in reserve” should it be needed over autumn or winter.
There had been opposition from Tory MPs on the Covid Recovery Group as well as the Liberal Democrats, whose leader Ed Davey called vaccine passports “divisive, unworkable and expensive”.
Under the scheme, patrons would either have to show proof of double vaccination, provide a negative Covid test, or evidence of finishing self-isolating after a positive PCR test in order to gain entry to clubs and other crowded events. All checked at the door via the NHS app.
Via BBC News.
