NHS app to be used as Covid passport & might serve for travelling abroad, UK transport secretary reveals
UK Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has shared new details about the government’s Covid-19 vaccine passport during an interview with Sky News, confirming that it will be located within the existing NHS app.
Shapps told Sky News on Wednesday that vaccine passports “will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments for the NHS and so on.”
With the standard NHS app, Shapps said Brits would “be able to show that you’ve had a vaccine or that you’ve had testing.” He added that he is “working internationally with partners across the world to make sure that system can be internationally recognised.”
“So, that’s the way forward,” he said, concluding that the matter would be discussed further next week during a G7 meeting with transport secretaries from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy.
Sky cited an unnamed government source clarifying that the app in question will be the standard NHS app, used for appointment-booking.
The planned Covid passport will allow Brits to travel abroad to select countries, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has also floated the possibility of using some kind of vaccine or negative test proof for domestic purposes.
With the standard NHS app, Shapps said Brits would “be able to show that you’ve had a vaccine or that you’ve had testing.” He added that he is “working internationally with partners across the world to make sure that system can be internationally recognised.”
“So, that’s the way forward,” he said, concluding that the matter would be discussed further next week during a G7 meeting with transport secretaries from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy.
Sky cited an unnamed government source clarifying that the app in question will be the standard NHS app, used for appointment-booking.
The planned Covid passport will allow Brits to travel abroad to select countries, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has also floated the possibility of using some kind of vaccine or negative test proof for domestic purposes.