The government’s decision not to implement vaccine passports when people visit pubs bars and restaurants has been warmly greeted by industry body UKHospitality.
The new “Covid status certification” scheme will only be applied to mass gatherings and indoor events like football matches and nightclubs. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce that a new NHS app confirming that the holder has been vaccinated, a recent negative test or Covid-19 in the previous six months.
Commenting, Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality said:
“We’re delighted that hospitality can start to emerge from restrictions next week as planned. Hospitality is working very hard to be ready for the opportunity to trade with outdoor openings and to commence indoor trading on the 17th of May, before that long-awaited and landmark moment on the 21st of June.
“Given the on-going success of the vaccination rollout and the very low incidence of new infections and serious illness, we welcome today’s reassurance and certainty that there is no reason or need to deviate from this roadmap.
“We are also reassured by the comments of the Prime Minister regarding the use of vaccination certification in hospitality. This would have been very difficult to implement and placed a huge amount of additional stress on an industry that has suffered enough. Such a scheme would have hindered the ability of thousands of hospitality businesses to return to sustainable levels of trade, to recover and to be viable, and we urge the government to avoid this at every stage, and at all costs.
“In terms of bringing back larger scale events, these test pilots are certainly positive news, and could start to unlock the safe return of business conferences, festivals, nightclubs, concerts and larger weddings, helping people safely return to normal life from 21st June, and to the removal of social distancing restrictions. Our industry, especially those expert in safely producing world-class, large-scale events, will do everything to assist the government in any way it can to help the pilots succeed.”
