Markus Andrews

Move comes days after Downing Street said there was ‘no clamour’ for round-the-clock jabs More

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‘Disease levels are very high across the whole of the country,’ says deputy chief medical officer More

‘There are huge pressures on the NHS and we are looking to all different ways that we can receive those pressures,’ says health secretary More

The vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has insisted there are “no plans” to introduce controversial “vaccine passports”, following a report suggesting government-funded trials of such technology are due to begin this month.According to The Daily Telegraph, trials of a free app allowing users to easily show they have had the coronavirus vaccine will be rolled out in two as-yet-undecided parts of the UK in January.Thousands of people will take part in the trials, which will be supervised by two directors of public health in local authorities, and aim to show how the app could help the NHS keep track how many people have been given one or two vaccine doses, the paper reported.Facial biometrics firm iProov and cybersecurity company Mvine – which co-developed the “passport” – have reportedly received £75,000 towards the project from the government funding agency, Innovate UK.But responding to the article on Twitter, Mr Zahawi said there were “no plans to introduce vaccine passports”, adding: “No one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport.”According to Mvine’s website, the firm first secured £49,000 of funding in May for a project called “Covid-19 test status digital passport, with privacy protection for adults and children”.The project’s main area of focus would be “developing a solution to enable the recognition of individuals with positive anti-body tests for Covid-19”, a news release on the website said.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayIn August, the firm announced that it had delivered a full-working prototype, which director Frank Joshi said at the time was “ready to be used in the national interest”.On Tuesday, The Telegraph quoted Mr Joshi as saying: “Originally we started off with this need to prove whether you’ve had an antibody test, but it can be equally used to demonstrate whether you’ve been vaccinated.”Despite the report of looming trials of the product in relation to vaccines, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson also responded that there were “no plans” to use vaccine passports.“At this stage of the vaccination programme, it is not clear whether vaccines will prevent transmission,” they said.“As large numbers of people from at risk groups are vaccinated, we will be able to gather the evidence to prove the impact on infection rates, hospitalisation and reduced deaths. If successful, this should in time lead to a reassessment of current restrictions.”A host of ethical concerns have been raised about the prospect of vaccination and immunity passports, but it appears the UK government – along with other nations, the World Health Organisation and a host of private firms – has been looking into the idea.In late November, Test and Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding told a Health Service Journal event that her staff were exploring how to combine test results and vaccine status within the official coronavirus app. And days later, Mr Zahawi told the BBC that the government was “looking at the technology” for immunity passports.But asked on Tuesday by former Brexit Party MEP whether people could hold him to his comment that there were “no plans” to introduce such a system, Mr Zahawi replied: “Yes you can.” More

Boris Johnson has reportedly approved a pilot of a 24/7 coronavirus vaccine service to see if the provision will speed up the rollout of the jab.The PM has come under increasing pressure to increase the pace of the rollout which has so far seen more than 2,430,000 people given the first round of the vaccine.However after Downing Street initially pushed back on the idea of of a all-hours service to get people in to vaccine hubs, the PM has given his approval to a pilot scheme for such a service to check its effectiveness, according to The Financial Times.A Downing Street spokeswoman referred back to Matt Hancock’s comments earlier this week that such an offering would “absolutely” go ahead if necessary.“We will do whatever it takes to get this vaccine rolled out as fast as possible”, she told The Independent.The government has pledged to vaccinate 13m of the highest-priority individuals by the middle of February – a target it is a month and just under 11 million jabs away from.And Labour’s Sir Kier Starmer has urged the government to oversee “a really round-the-clock vaccine programme, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in every village and every town, in every high street and every GP surgery”.Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has reportedly been advising Mr Hancock among others, has also been an advocate for rapid rollout of the vaccine – writing in the Independent that instead of prioritising those at risk “the aim should be to vaccinate as many people as possible in the coming months”. However earlier this week the prime minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton said there had not been a “clamour” for late night vaccinations from the public.“If you go and have a chat with the NHS, they will say that when they are asking the people who are being offered vaccinations, they’re asking them when it would suit them, what time”, she said.“If people come back and say they would like an appointment over 8pm then that is something they will consider.“My understanding is at the moment there’s not a clamour for appointments late into the night or early in the morning.“If it was the case, then it is something the NHS could well consider.“They are doing their absolute utmost to get the jab into people’s arms as quickly as possible.” More