Covid passports are ineffective at reducing infection and may even be sending out false messages that being vaccinated means a person cannot spread the virus, experts advising Spain’s government have found.
Specialists on Spain’s inter-regional Covid committee concluded that evidence from European countries shows such passports for entry to bars and other leisure facilities is not reducing transmission levels.
“In European countries where [the system] is being used, cases are rising significantly, although it is true that their level of vaccination is much lower than in Spain,” an internal report seen by the newspaper El País said.
More than 90 per cent of Spain’s target population has been vaccinated but the report says the impact of Covid passports is negligible. Eight of Spain’s 17 regions are now using the system in some form.
“We know that around 40 per cent of those vaccinated are susceptible to infection and transmitting the infection,” the report said, criticising passports for presenting a false impression of this.
UK government assessors warned in September that vaccine passports could fuel the spread of Covid by encouraging people to visit poorly ventilated pubs instead of large venues, and would slash turnover.
Covid certificates have been rolled out in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in various forms and remain part of England’s “plan B” should the omicron variant worsen.
Follow the latest updates below.
Britons, even if vaccinated, could be asked to take a costly pre-departure PCR test before travelling to Europe, under EU recommendations to curb the spread of omicron.
Ursula von der Leyen has called on member states to conduct daily reviews of travel rules into the bloc, which could include new restrictions for non-EU countries.
Von der Leyen also claimed it was right to open the debate on mandatory vaccination, saying it "needs to be discussed" inside the EU.
The European Union needs daily reviews of its travel restrictions and rapid deployment of vaccine booster doses to limit entry and protect its citizens from the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
"We are facing at the moment a severe double challenge," the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference. "On one hand, we are amid the fourth wave... On the other hand, we are facing a new threat that is the new variant omicron."
The EU executive said that its 27 EU members needed to step up vaccination campaigns, with 66 per cent of the total EU population now inoculated. Vaccines for children between five and 11 will be eligible to receive vaccines from December 13.
Von der Leyen said that with BionTech/Pfizer and Moderna set to deliver 360 million more doses by the end of March, there were boosters available to all those that had received their initial shots.
The Commission also urged EU members to commit to a day-by-day review of travel restrictions, with most having banned arrivals from South Africa.
Boris Johnson has arrived in the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister of "taking the public for fools" over claims he attended a Downing Street party during lockdown last year.
Mr Johnson insisted "all guidance was followed completely".
Starmer also pointed to the Conservative benches to claim it is "one rule for them, another for everyone else" on face masks.
The leaders also clashed on whether the Government's promise to build 40 new hospitals includes refurbishments rather than fresh new-builds.
Read the full exchanges over on our Politics blog
There were 13 deaths of homeless people involving coronavirus in England and Wales last year, the Office for National Statistics has found.
It formed part of a total 688 deaths of homeless people registered in the country last year, the first time the figure has fallen since 2014 but 42.7 per cent higher than 2013 when the ONS began collecting data.
Charities said the overall fall and low number of deaths involving Covid was testament to Government action to shelter people during lockdown. Ministers must do the same this winter, they said.
The 2020 figures include the deaths of people sleeping rough or using emergency or temporary accommodation at or around the time of death.
The western Indian state of Maharashtra, home to the country's financial capital of Mumbai, has imposed a seven-day hotel quarantine on all arrivals from Europe, including the United Kingdom, Joe Wallen reports from India.
While India has not detected a case of the omicron variant yet its government is concerned of a repeat of the spring's devastating second wave, in which Indians died outside overwhelmed hospitals and in their homes.
Several arrivals from South Africa have tested positive for Covid-19 over the last week and the Indian authorities are waiting to see if the travellers had been infected with the omicron variant.
After completing the seven-day institutional quarantine, which includes three RT-PCR tests, arrivals from 'at risk' countries will then also have to complete a seven-day at-home quarantine.
If someone tests positive during the 14 days they will be transferred to a hospital. Any arrival from a non 'at risk' country into Maharashtra will be subject to a 14 day home quarantine.
The World Health Organisation agreed on Wednesday to launch negotiations on an international pact to prevent and control future pandemics, as the omicron variant emerges.
Such an agreement to beef up measures against pandemics is expected to be ready in May 2024, covering issues from data sharing and genome sequencing of emerging viruses to equitable distribution of medicines.
"The adoption of this decision is cause for celebration and a cause for hope that we all need," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the meeting of health ministers.
"Of course there is still a long road ahead. There are still differences of opinion about what a new accord could or should contain," he said, calling for continued cooperation.
The decision, entitled "The World Together", was adopted by consensus at a special assembly of the 194 nations that are members of the UN health body.
Doctors' workload will be "temporarily suspended" so they can focus on the Covid-19 booster vaccination programme, the Health Secretary has said.
Sajid Javid said the NHS was working on how "some of the workload of GPs can be temporarily suspended or GPs can be helped in other ways so they can concentrate on vaccine delivery".
It has prompted fresh fears that face-to-face patient appointments may be once again under threat, risking missed diagnoses. The British Medical Association claimed "something has to give".
The Prime Minister has vowed to offer every adult in Britain a third Covid-19 vaccine by the end of January to combat the omicron Covid variant. GPs will get bonuses of up to ￡30 per shot.
Dr Gary Howsam, vice-chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said surgeries were ready to play their part but "can't be doing all things all the time".
"GPs are already working to full capacity on the work we're doing at the moment and if we're going to divert our attention to the vaccination programme again then there's going to be some choices having to be made on exactly where we have most clinical value," he told BBC Radio 4.
Cancer cases will go undetected amid the rising NHS backlog, Labour's new shadow health secretary has warned.
It comes as a new National Audit Office report warned up to 740,000 potential cancer cases that should have been urgently referred by GPs have been "missed" since the first lockdown.
There are currently 5.83 million people waiting on the NHS waiting list and the NAO said this figure could rise to 12 million by March 2025.
Wes Streeting drew on his own experience with kidney cancer, where the disease was only picked up because he was getting a scan for another reason.
He said "timing is everything" with cancer, as he urged ministers to publish their recovery plan to tackle the backlog which has built up throughout the pandemic.
Mr Streeting told LBC Radio: "I had kidney cancer earlier this year and went through successful treatment for that.
"...In that big NHS backlog, for all sorts of operations, there will undoubtedly be cancer cases that will go undetected."
Sajid Javid has admitted that "it might take a bit longer than three weeks" to determine how bad the new omicron variant is, opening the door to Covid regulations being renewed ahead of Christmas.
MPs last night approved regulations to restore mandatory mask wearing, new self-isolation rules and tougher travel restrictions, all of which are due to be reviewed in three weeks. However several Tory MPs - including some former ministers - rebelled, amid fears that the isolation rule could cause another pingdemic.
The Health Secretary played that down, telling Sky News: "At this moment at time the case numbers are very low. They will certainly go up but the numbers are low. I am not worried about pingdemic-type situation."
Asked about the 'arbitrary' decision to review restrictions in three weeks, he replied: "I wouldn't call it an arbitrary figure. Where you might be a bit right is that it might take a bit longer than three weeks.
"We are confident that actually maybe within two weeks we will know a lot more about this. We may not even need to wait three weeks," Mr Javid added.
Some NHS organisations have asked staff "not to mix in big groups" in the run-up to Christmas, a health service leader has said.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said this year was "very different" to last year when "it was absolutely clear that nobody was going to a Christmas party last year".
"This year, we are in in a slightly different place - people will be taking their own decisions," she told Sky News.
"We know that many NHS trusts, for example, are asking their staff not to mix in big groups in the run-up to Christmas because of the potential threat to their health and what they will be available to do. So, they are they are setting one example there.
"I think, at the moment, without that advice for Government, I think it's for individuals and individual organisations to think about what they will be doing in the run-up to Christmas. But it's a really challenging and difficult one."
Hospitality venues are already being hit by a wave of Christmas party cancellations but young people are "not nervous", a pub chief has claimed.
"What we're seeing on the ground is the young people out and about are showing absolutely no signs at all of being nervous, they're out and about, having fun," said Sacha Lord, who founded the Punch Taverns pub chain.
He added that hospitality chiefs are seeing "no evidence" that youths, "many of whom have now had the disease" want to stop going out and start wearing masks.
"Social interaction is, after food and water, the most important thing for a human being's mental health," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of the trade body UK Hospitality, said its members were starting to see bookings cancelled because of the "chilling effect" of ministers warning about the omicron variant, which is risking huge financial losses.
By James Badcock in Madrid
Experts from Spain’s inter-regional Covid committee have concluded that Covid passports are ineffective in terms of reducing infection, and may even be sending out the dangerous message that being vaccinated means a person cannot spread the virus.
According to an internal report seen by the newspaper El País, the experts say that the experience in other European countries demonstrates that the use of passports to gain access to bars and other leisure facilities is not reducing levels of transmission.
“In European countries where [the system] is being used, cases are rising significantly, although it is true that their level of vaccination is much lower than in Spain,” the report reads.
In the case of Spain, where more than 90 per cent of the target population has been vaccinated, the report says the impact of Covid passports would be negligible, and warns that it may contribute to a false impression that vaccinated people do not get infected. Eight of Spain’s 17 regions are now using the system in some form.
“We know that around 40 per cent of those vaccinated are susceptible to infection and transmitting the infection,” the report says.
The only benefits the experts see in a passport system is that it warns people that there is still danger from the pandemic and encourages vaccination uptake among the reticent.
The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the vaccination programme will need to deliver one million more jabs a week to meet the Government's target for offering Covid boosters to all adults by the end of January.
Mr Javid said the programme was being expanded but he acknowledged more volunteers were needed and said completing the "national mission" would be a "huge ask".
"In the last week we had about 2.4 million jabs across the UK. We are going to need to do around a million more ... but I think it can be done," he told BBC Breakfast.
"Existing national vaccination centres and the hospital hubs, many of them will open for longer. Some of the people there are already committed to doing extra hours or they know where they can find the volunteers they want.
"We are also going to have more pharmacies than ever before - 1,500 pharmacies across the country - and more GPs will be involved as well.
"In terms of volunteers, we do absolutely need more volunteers."
People should be "sensible" if they are out celebrating over Christmas, the Health Secretary has said after Downing Street dismissed a suggestion from the head of the UK Health Security Agency to reduce socialising over the festive period.
Sajid Javid told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If you are invited to a Christmas party, there's quite a few people there, maybe you want to take an LFT (lateral flow test) test before you go. Go to the party, but just be cautious."
Asked if he would wear a mask if he was at a party, Mr Javid said: "It depends if I am walking around or sitting down. It depends if I'm eating. People just need to make a decision based on the guidance."
The Cabinet minister defended the Government's decision to make face coverings compulsory on public transport and in shops in England but not in hospitality settings.
"The job of government is to listen to expert advice and then make a balanced and proportionate judgment. That's what we've done," he said.
"We've acted swiftly. But I think what we've said on face coverings and the other measures that we have taken is a balanced and proportionate approach."
The UK is in a "different situation" now to the start of the pandemic and "we're definitely not going back to the start again", a Government scientific adviser has assured.
Professor Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist at UCL and a member of the Nervtag advisory group, said: "When you define a pandemic, one of the sort of key points of that is that it's coming into a population with no immunity.
"Now, that's just not the case any more. We may have lost some of that immunity, but we still have a reasonable amount of it.
"I think that doesn't mean that it's not going to cause a problem. I think what you tend to see in pandemics is that you'll get two or three or four reasonable-sized waves, and then it will just sort of fade into the background along with other infections."
"Now, we've been able to accelerate the speed with which it's going to fade into the background by boosting immunity and as new strains emerge over time, we'll get a broader level of protection," he added on Times Radio.
"So, I think that the long-term picture is good, but we do have a potential problem over this winter. We need to monitor it, we need to be cautious still, I'm afraid."
The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the NHS is working to suspend some of the workload of GPs so they can concentrate on the "new national mission" booster vaccination programme.
"The NHS is working on that right now with GP representatives," he told BBC Breakfast.
"I am confident that they will work out a way where some of the workload of GPs can be temporarily suspended or GPs can be helped in other ways so they can concentrate on vaccine delivery."
Mr Javid urged people who were struggling to book a booster jab to contact their MP.
"If they have contacted their GP and they are not getting anywhere, the best they can do right now is probably contact their Member of Parliament directly and that will come to me and we will do everything we can to help," he said.
Mr Javid said pharmacies offering jabs would be increased to 1,500, some 400 troops would be drafted in and 16 more hospital hubs would be added to the 230 current ones. He said 3,000 vaccination sites exist across the UK.
America is set to bring in tougher pre-flight testing for international arrivals to try to curb the spread of the Omicrom variant, Ben Farmer reports.
Health officials are expected to insist travellers take a test no more than 24 hours before they board their flight, instead of the current 72 hours.
The tightening up comes after Joe Biden said the new virus variant was a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic” and said there would be no further lock downs in the US.
Mr Biden is due to deliver a speech on Thursday outlining plans to control the Covid-19 pandemic during the winter season.
America's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said it was "working to modify the current Global Testing Order for travel as we learn more about the Omicron variant; a revised order would shorten the timeline for required testing for all international air travellers to one day before departure to the United States".
Officials are also looking at toughening up testing requirements for international visitors in the days after they arrive. That could include self quarantine.
The CDC currently recommends post-arrival testing 3-5 days after landing in the US from overseas and self-quarantine for unvaccinated travellers, though compliance is voluntary and is believed to be low.
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