Britain will provide vaccine COVID-19 certificates for its residents if they are required by other countries, although it is not planning to introduce them for use at home, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said this morning. Spain is pushing for the introduction of a vaccine passport to help re-open the tourist industry.
"Internationally, if other countries will require a vaccine certificate, then I think it's right that we facilitate it," Zahawi told the BBC in an interview.
"We're not looking at the domestic use of vaccine passports, that's not in our planning. As the prime minister described, it'll be the national vaccination programme combined with rapid testing that I think is the way forward."
Zahawi also said Britain was expecting the supply of vaccines to increase next month and he was confident of meeting a target to give first vaccine doses to the 32 million people in top priority groups by the end of April.
"I see much greater volume in March and April - tens of millions of doses coming through," he said.
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If vaccine passports become mandatory to travel from the UK to Spain this summer then it looks like the tourism industry and all those who's livelihoods depend on it are in for another horrendous year. If the vaccination program here in the UK continues the way it's planned then people under 40 are unlikely to have received the vaccine in time for summer. What about families with children aged 16 and slightly older ? The parents might be vaccinated but the children won't so that means the holiday will be off. Sure the over 60's will be free to go but, and without sounding disrespectful, that age group is hardly likely to keep places like pubs, watersports etc.. going.