UK prime minister Boris Johnson has decided to abandon plans to introduce vaccine passports for pubs and restaurants when they reopen, according to reports.
Entry to larger venues, such as theatres, cinemas and sports venues, will however require people to prove that they are covid negative after June 21.
The Express reports: A new NHS app will be launched, confirming that a person has either had the jab, recently tested negative or had Covid-19 within the last six months.
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Previously, Mr Johnson had indicated that people may have to provide vaccine certificates to gain entry to pubs in England.
But a Government source told The Times: “Pubs, restaurants and non-essential retail won’t be required to introduce certification.”
Ministers have also decided that people will not have to have vaccine passports for shops, public transport or to use other public services.
Vaccine passports have proved a contentious issue for the Prime Minister and attracted fierce criticism from all political sides.
Critics claim that they are an infringement and threat to civil liberties.
Labor peer and human rights activist, Baroness Chakrabarti, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s one thing to have a passport to travel internationally, that is a privilege, even a luxury, but participation in local community life is a fundamental right.”
She added: “To introduce two queues at the cinema, two queues at the football stadium going forward, is to introduce checkpoint Britain that so many of us just do not want.”
The former head of Liberty continued: “It’s a recipe for bullying, it’s a recipe for corruption, it’s a recipe for discrimination and it’s not what we sacrificed so much for as a community over the past year.”
