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Coronavirus

05th Aug 2021

Vaccine passports to remain ‘permanent fixture’ of foreign holidays

Kieran Galpin

Vaccine Passports are not going anywhere.

ITV is reporting that vaccine passports will remain a “permanent” fixture when travelling internationally for the “foreseeable future”, the transport secretary has warned.

Per the new system, any travellers out of the UK need to prove they’ve been fully vaccinated against Covid before they return. Should they not be, then it will be mandatory to quarantine. This seems to be the global consensus, as dozens of countries around the world also require foreign tourists to have received both doses of a covid vaccine to enter without quarantining.

“I do see this becoming a permanent, for the foreseeable future, fixture of international travel,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told ITV News.

“I’ve chaired meetings with my transport equivalents [in other countries], when I speak to them it’s quite clear that double vaccination will be a requirement, we’re already seeing it in virtually every country in the world.”

He continued: “If you haven’t got your vaccination yet, please get it, unless you’re medically exempt, you will need it in order to be able to travel in the future.”

He also said that the traffic light system would be reviewed every three weeks throughout the summer.

“My simple message is we want people to be able to go away, enjoy a well earned break and know that this is the system we have in place, bar any unforeseen circumstances, for the rest of August.”

“We have certainly lived with coronavirus long enough to know that it can be unpredictable; however, we have also lived with it long enough to get the majority of the population vaccinated, other countries are doing the same thing,” he told the BBC.

“That does mean that this summer we are able to set out a three-week programme rather than a one-week programme which was the situation last year.

“I hope people will be able to go away under this simplified system, enjoy their breaks and not be looking over their shoulders the whole time, and as long as they follow the processes then they can have a great time and I hope they are able to enjoy their holidays.”

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