minister nadhim zahawi confirms vaccination passports will be required for entry into large venues from october to avoid winter closures

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.

Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi hints Sajid Javid WILL make full vaccination a condition of employment for all NHS workers

Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi today hinted Sajid Javid is going to press ahead with plans to make full vaccination a condition of employment for all NHS staff.

Reports suggest that Mr Javid, the Health Secretary, will proceed with the change as part of a bid to reduce the spread of coronavirus in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

Mr Zahawi did not deny the move is on the table as he said 'it is only right and responsible that we look at the duty of care for healthcare workers on the frontline and across the NHS' who are looking after vulnerable people.

The Government is set to launch a consultation on the issue, potentially as soon as this week, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

However, there are fears that a vaccination requirement could spark an exodus of NHS staff.

Mr Zahawi told Sky News: 'I think it is only right and responsible that we look at the duty of care for healthcare workers on the frontline and across the NHS who are looking after people who are, when they are entering hospital, vulnerable to infection and we consult and we will come back and of course publish that consultation in due course.'

Told that his answer sounded like a confirmation the change will happen, Mr Zahawi said: 'I think the right thing to do is to consult and then publish that.'

Mr Zahawi's comments on vaccine passports came as:

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.'

Covid chaos is causing red tape misery for millions of Britons waiting for passports, driving licenses and tax returns as civil servants continue to work from home

Covid chaos is still causing red tape misery for millions of Britons with months-long delays in the processing of essential documents such as passports and driving licences.

Yet an overwhelming majority of civil servants are continuing to work from home – 80 per cent in some departments – despite the Government encouraging workers to return to offices.

Last night, MPs and campaigners urged them to return immediately.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘They’ve got to get back into the offices and look at ways of clearing the backlog.’

John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance added: ‘With taxes at the highest level for 70 years, it would be deeply unfair for taxpayers to see the standard of services decline due to the Whitehall work-from-home revolution.’

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 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 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.

This graph shows the number of first doses dished out by age group. The NHS publishes age groups as periods of five years, and groups all those under 18 together. It shows more than 620,000 have already been inoculated among under-18s

Sickening moment maskless 'Karen' COUGHS in the face of grocery store customer, then claims she doesn't have to wear a mask because she 'isn't sick'

A woman was captured on camera following a customer through a supermarket as she coughs on her after claiming she does not need a mask because she is not sick. Video of the incident, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone, allegedly took place in a Su per Saver in Lincoln, Nebraska according to Twitter user @davenewworld_2. In it, an unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of the customer recording her. Scroll down for video An unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of a woman recording her A woman was captured on camera following a customer as she coughs on her in a supermarket without a mask on claiming she does not need one because she is not sick @chaiteabugz #karen #covid #karens #karensgonewild #karensalert #masks we were just wearing a mask at the store. ¿ o

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