According to reports, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is "dead set" on avoiding further lockdown as he prepares to lay out his strategy for getting the UK through the coronavirus outbreak this autumn and winter.
Mr Johnson is set to address the public at a press conference on Tuesday, emphasizing how immunizations will play a key role in the coronavirus response in the coming months.
Despite the fact that a number of Covid-control restrictions are due to be relaxed, The Telegraph stated that the PM will warn MPs and the country that "we need to learn to live with Covid" and that vaccines would be the primary defence.
After the JCVI said the margin of advantage from vaccinating healthy youngsters was too narrow to advise they should have a vaccine, the UK's chief medical officers are drafting advice to the government on whether children aged 12 to 15 should be vaccinated.
“The autumn and winter do offer some uncertainty,” a senior government source told the newspaper, “but the Prime Minister is dead set against another lockdown.”
It comes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid stated on Sunday that the government has a "whole toolbox" of measures in place to combat Covid, but that vaccine passports wouldn't be one of them.
Mr Javid stated proposals to implement vaccine passports in England for nightclubs as well as other crowded events had been shelved, in the latest of the Government's coronavirus U-turns.
Just days after ministers defended the strategy to sceptical MPs, Mr Javid announced the proposals "will not be going ahead."
Members of the public will be forced to provide proof of two doses of the Covid-19 vaccination in order to obtain entrance to clubs and other large-scale events in England, according to Mr Johnson.
The idea was dropped after a backlash from Tory MPs, according to the Health Secretary.
It comes after No 10 announced that several parts of the Coronavirus Act would be repealed, including those that enable the economy to be shut down, limitations on events and gatherings, the ability to temporarily close or restrict access to schools, and powers to imprison contagious people.
The Telegraph also reported that the traffic light system will be phased out, the red list of nations would be decreased, and PCR tests for double-vaccinated travellers would no longer be required.
Mr Javid stated on Sunday that he wants to eliminate PCR tests for travel “as soon as I possibly can.”
“I'm not going to make that decision right now,” the Health Secretary told Sky News' Trevor Phillips on Sunday, “but I've already asked the officials that the moment we can, let's get rid of these kinds of intrusions.”
The Prime Minister urged businesses not to defy the government's tax pledge by hiking business rates.
Vaccine passports have created increasing unease among Conservative ranks, as well as resistance from opposition parties and industry representatives.
Covid measures in England will now differ from those in Scotland, where a resolution to introduce them was agreed in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, and a decision in Wales is due next week.
Ministers from Stormont have yet to adopt an official position on the use of vaccine access passports in Northern Ireland.
As of Sunday, 56 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, increasing the total number of people who have died in the UK to 134,200.
According to separate estimates from the Office for National Statistics, there have been 158,000 deaths in the UK where Covid-19 was indicated on the death certificate.
According to the government, there have been a total of 29,173 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK as of 9 a.m. on Sunday.
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