Saturday , February 15 2025
Home / FEATURED / UK plans “vaccination passport”, Greeks say British visitors back from May

UK plans “vaccination passport”, Greeks say British visitors back from May

The UK has started developing a ‘vaccine passport’ so people who are protected against coronavirus can go on holiday. Officials at the Foreign Office are said to be working on a certification system which would give vaccinated people an official document, the Times reports.

It comes as tourism bosses in Greece said British visitors could be welcomed back from May, provided they have proof of vaccination.

Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said it would be up to the countries where holidaymakers are arriving to decide on whether ‘vaccine passports’ would be necessary. ‘The border measures of other countries and what they require of people coming to their countries will be up to them,’ he told Sky News.

‘Receiving countries will set their own border measures and it will be up to those countries to define what they require travellers to have. ‘At the moment, most countries, including our own, require a negative test result. ‘And we’ll have to see what countries, what the international community, put in place once vaccines around the world are as effectively distributed, as they are here in the UK.’

  • Tourism bosses in Greece said British visitors could be welcomed back from May, provided they have proof of vaccination

Early evidence suggests the jabs can reduce transmission, as well as prevent serious disease – leading to calls for those with the vaccinations to have more freedom. Greece is reportedly ‘confident’ that people who have been given two doses of the Pfizer or the AstraZeneca vaccine will have enough immunity to visit.

Grigoris Tasios, from Greece’s hoteliers federation, said: ‘Greece has long been a favourite holiday destination for the British, and with the rate of inoculations in the UK largely outpacing all others across Europe and beyond, British travellers will be among the safest to travel here by as early as May.’

Around two million Brits visit Greece every year spending more than €10 billion – second only to Germany. Tourism was responsible for a fifth of Greece’s GDP in 2019. – via metro.uk

Note that also Denmark and Sweden have been reportedly preparing a “digital vaccination passport”, while Greece has said recently it could sign bilateral agreements with countries to the mutual recognition of such a document.

Check Also

Kefalonia: Heavy rainfalls cause landslides, floods, road network damages

Heavy rainfalls that hit the island of Kefalonia on Thursday night caused serious problems on …

12 comments

  1. Early evidence that the vaccine reduce transmission… Really??
    This vaccine hasn’t even been triald for long enough yet. What nonsense. A lot more research is needed. Going into the unknown just for a holiday? No thanks.
    Passport for what?

    • If you are going to make scientific statements, Liz, then you need to keep up with the science. Subjects involved in the Astra Zeneca trial have continued to be monitored. Typically they were swab tested every week after having the vaccine. Those tests show that 50 % of those vaccinated did not have any virus at all in any of the samples. If they don’t have virus in them they cannot pass it on. A 50 % suppression of passing on infection is a pretty good result by vaccination standards. Some of those who did still develop some virus load, although no significant illness, may have had a lower virus load than those not vaccinated and so would be less likely to pass on the virus. That is not yet certain. Science progresses through measurement not uninformed opinion.

      I watched the media interviews with James Cleverly in the UK this morning. At no point did he say that the UK government were “planning” a vaccination passport system. He avoided answering the question. He did make the comments that all national governments were entitled to impose whatever entry conditions they wished to.

      I think we need to divide the debate. Should someone who has received the vaccine be entitled to an official document showing that they have received the vaccine, possibly with some details such as dates, vaccine type, batch numbers? Yes. Should having such a document be mandated as a condition for certain activities, e.g. travel? I am not sure.

      • Chill out..I know what I was reading in the UK news this morning & it was about producing a vaccine passport for travel.
        I am making a personal comment!

  2. The vaccine makes you less ill when you catches the virus. It doesn’t stop the virus to be spread. Before coming up with these nonsense tactics, try to increase the number of test and some how have a clue on tracing the virus spread.
    Lockdown on and off like a kid playing with a joystick with no plans doesn’t work at all.

  3. Marcelis Vanmechelen

    Dear Liz,
    This whole situation has nothing to do with our health anymore. It has everything to do with controlling people and creating a totalitarian state. Unfortunately, 90% of the people are so freightened in the meantime, that they don’t see it anymore.
    Kind regards,
    Marc

    • Marc, conspiracy theories! Why, just WHY would someone/some”whatever” want to control people to go on holiday to another country?? Must say you have to give a reason for your comment! WHO do you think is “controlling” the pandemia and peoples movements across boarders???

  4. 50% suppression in a non-random sample is nowhere near enough to justify either a vaccination passport (which I believe will be ruled unlawful anyway) or opening up countries to tourism so they can all be infected again.

    The real issue is that lockdowns do not work, and control of borders does. This is what is shown by scientific research, but politicians do not want to hear it.

  5. Oh Marcelis, stop with the conspiracy theories. They are based on nothing as a fact just like the fable that women will have fertility problems once vaccinated. Which is absolute nonsense.
    And a “vaccine passport”? Well, for yellow fever you need proof of vaccination to go to some countries, why not the same for covid?

  6. Well, this morning the UK vaccines minister has ruled out a “vaccine passport” partly on what seem to be slightly bizarre but undianibly trendy grounds that it would be “discriminatory”, and the more substantial grounds that we don’t know how vaccination affects transmisability. Time to put holiday aspirations back on hold, I guess

  7. The UK government is not currently launching a ‘vaccine passport’. Nobody knows if a vaccine prevents transmission of covid, given you can still catch covid after you have been vaccinated.

    The UK was warned to be vary wary of booking any overseas holidays this year by Jonathan Van-Tam, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, during a nationally broadcast covid ‘update’ press conference, held yesterday by the UK government.

    It is currently illegal for anybody to leave the UK for non-essential reasons, which includes holidays.

    These are facts.

  8. Don’t waste your time with Marc. He watched too much Wizard of Oz at Christmas.

  9. We the residents of Greece are not allowed to travel within Greece but we are eager to allow foreign travellers in. Another open summer, another lockdown the winter of 2022. Nothing spreads this virus more than foreign travel. Can’t we open gradually the economy without new visitors coming for awhile?