The UK government have said that the ‘Freedom Day’ delay to July 19th has given them time to test vaccine passports before their rollout in July.
Following legal action launched by airlines against the UK government, Britain is considering easing travel restrictions for fully vaccinated people.
Airlines are calling for travel restrictions to be relaxed in time for the summer holidays when Brits are expected to be jetting abroad, as Britain has stuck with strict quarantine restrictions, which has deterred many from traveling.
Ryanair and the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) have launched legal action against the UK government regarding its travel policy, and it is expected that other airlines could join the battle.
According to a spokesperson for MAG, papers were filed for judicial review at the UK’s High Court yesterday.
However, the UK government has indicated that it is considering relaxing travel restrictions in time for summer.
The Department of Transport said on Thursday that it was considering the use of vaccination passports for inbound travel, following the European Union’s (EU) decision to allow fully vaccinated travelers to avoid Covid-19 testing and quarantines from July.
A government spokesperson said: “We have commenced work to consider the role of vaccinations in shaping a different set of health and testing measures for inbound travel.”
Airlines have been calling for this decision to be implemented for vaccinated travelers, including an easing of restrictions for travel to countries such as Malta, and the Spanish and Greek Islands.
The destinations deemed on the “safe list” is due to be updated on June 24th and the government said that they are set to review their travel policy before the end of June.
Vaccine passports have been discussed over the past year as the vaccine rollout commenced, however, it has been hit by a significant backlash by MPs and the British public as it would create a two-tier society whereby unvaccinated individuals would be ostracised from society.
Despite this, the UK government has launched an immunity passport scheme to take place up until the new ‘Freedom Day’ on July 19th, which will see 20 large-scale events implement the use of a vaccine certification system for customers, which will be implemented into the pre-existing NHS app.
It appears as though Britain is set to follow in the footsteps of the EU, as seven EU countries launched vaccine passports for international travel earlier this month – ahead of the July 1st launch for other member states.
The document which has been titled a “digital green certificate”, shows whether someone is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, has recovered from the virus, or tested negative within 72 hours.
Those who are able to meet any of these criteria are permitted to travel to countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Greece, and the Czech Republic, without having to be tested or enter quarantine.
This news is unsurprising to many of us who have been expecting the vaccine passport to be introduced since the start of the pandemic, it is now only a matter of time before our freedoms are restricted even further, and only one step away from a digital ID…
