Government defends winter Covid-19 plans

The health secretary Sajid Javid says a vaccine booster plan will be rolled out as early as next week, as he set out the government’s plans for tackling Covid-19 this winter.

Javid confirmed to the House that the government had accepted the JCVI’s advice to offer vaccines to priority groups 1-9, six months after their second dose.

The government has been criticised in recent days for flip-flopping on the issue of vaccine passports. Shadow health secretary Johnathan Ashworth asked Javid for “clarity” on whether vaccine passports were “a good idea or not”.

In response, the health secretary told the House that ‘the evidence for vaccine passports is not there’.