Michael Gove Says No Plans For Vaccine Immunity Passports

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said there were no plans for an “immunity passport” for people to be allowed in places such as pubs and restaurants.

His comments come after the government’s vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi suggested hospitality and other businesses could bar those who have not had a Covid-19 vaccine.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Gove said: “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.”

He added: “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.”

Gove’s comments came after Health Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who is in charge of the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, suggested on Monday that a so-called “immunity passport” was being looked at to identify people who had the jab.

Zahawi said that hospitality and entertainment venues might insist on seeing such a “passport” from customers.

The Health Minister said that the government was “looking at the technology” so people could show that they had a Covid-19 vaccine.

He said: “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.”