UK Plan to Use NHS App as Vaccine Proof for Travel

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday that the UK is working on using the existing NHS coronavirus app to prove that people have obtained their COVID-19 vaccine for international travel.

He said, “It will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments with the NHS … to be able to show that you’ve had a vaccine or that you’ve had testing, and I’m working internationally with partners across the world, to make sure that that system can be internationally recognized”.

He told Sky News that he will be chairing a meeting of G7 transport ministers next week to further discuss the programme.

Following a winter lockout, Britain has set May 17 as the earliest date when non-essential international travel will be permitted, with a “traffic light scheme” focused on individual countries’ COVID risk levels.

Shapps said that he would announce the groups under which countries would be classified early next month.

He said, “The data does continue to look good from a UK perspective notwithstanding those concerns about where people might be traveling to and making sure that we’re protected from the disease being re-imported.”