UK govt will ‘help facilitate’ vaccine passports: minister

LONDON: The UK government will work with other countries to “help facilitate” coronavirus immunity passports if they are required by destinations abroad, a minister has said.

Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said it would be up to the individual countries where holidaymakers are arriving to decide on their own border arrangements.

But he said it was “not an uncommon practice” for countries to require documents on inoculations and that the government would work with international partners on this.

It follows reports in the Times that British officials have started work on an official certification programme after Greece said it would waive quarantine rules for arrivals who can prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Cleverly told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday: “The decisions that individual countries make about their own incoming arrangements is obviously up to them.

“We are incredibly proud of the speed and the breadth of our vaccination rollout and of course, I think the whole world hopes, that the vaccination programme will be a way of getting back to normality.”

Asked if the UK would help in providing certificates, he said: “It is often the case that the entry requirements for countries are for vaccines or inoculations, and that is not an uncommon practice. We will work with international partners to help facilitate their border arrangements and their immigration arrangements.”

Cleverly told Sky News that at present most countries, including the UK, require a negative test result on arrival.

“And we’ll have to see what countries, what the international community, put in place once vaccines around the world are as effectively distributed, as they are here in the UK,” he added.

According to the Times, the Foreign Office, Department for Transport and Department of Health and Social Care are working on arrangements should countries require proof of vaccination as a condition of entry.

British tourists may be welcomed to Greece in May provided they can provide proof they have received the coronavirus jab, the newspaper reports.