Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed to SKY News this morning that an NHS app will be used as a vaccine passport for travel overseas. Shapps told SKY’s Stephen Dixon:
“I can confirm we are working on an NHS application actually, it will be the actual app [Test and Trace] and it will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments with the NHS and so on, to be able to show that you’ve had a vaccine or that you’ve had testing, and I’m working internationally with partners across the world, to make sure that that system can be internationally recognised.”
Shapps also said that so-called green-list countries – where people would not have to quarantine having returned from those places – will be announced early next month.
The question is, will the same travel app/passport be deployed domestically? There’s no reason why not. There’s nothing to prevent shops, cinemas, theatres, gyms or pubs from using the system.
Cabinet secretary Michael Gove has been in Israel, where a domestic vaccine passport system has been operating for the last couple of months. Israeli’s must have their phones scanned to get into restaurants, gyms, theatres and hotels. The unvaccinated are banned.
The smart (pun intended) money is on the new NHS app/vaccine passport being used domestically. Gove’s report on the feasibility of using such a system to help re-open the economy is imminent.
