Despite Boris’s last press conference using the flowery language of the government looking at “the potential role of Covid status certification”, a new internal civil service job ad all but confirms the plans. Multiple jobs have now come up in both London and Leeds with NHSX, which spells out they are:
“developing both digital and non-digital options to enable UK residents to assert their Covid status, including both vaccination history and test results.”
The ad also confirms a rapid timetable, given applicants must be able “to start with us by Tuesday, 4th May 2021.” The consultation document released by the government a fortnight ago merely said they had “committed to explore whether and how COVID-status certification might be used to reopen our economy”. Sounds like the ‘exploring’ is over…
It doesn’t take an incredible memory to remember back to February, when Nadhim Zahawi was confidently telling Andrew Marr Covid passports would be “discriminatory” on three different counts:
The working assumption is the passports have to be sorted by the time the youngest age bands start receiving their first jabs. Despite their implementation practically being assured, Gove’s currently using the excuse of scouting out Israel’s Covid passport implementation to enjoy a lad’s holiday there with Jonathan Van Tam…
