Sajid Javid confirms mandatory Covid stabbing scheme for NHS staff has been scrapped

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The rule was due to be enforced in April – meaning that if NHS workers had not received their first jab by Friday, they would not have been spanked twice in time.

Now Sajid Javid has unveiled the directive in the House of Commons on Monday that mandatory punches for health workers will be scrapped.

He said: “Given that Delta has been replaced, it is right to revise our policy on vaccination as a requirement for spread. So I have sought new advice including from the UK’s Health Security Agency and England’s chief medical officer.”

“The increased infection of Omicron means that at the height of the recent winter rise, one in 15 people was infected with Covid-19, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). About 24% of the population of England had at least one positive test for Covid-19, As of today in England, 84% of people over the age of 12 have had an initial course of Covid-19 vaccines and 64% have been boosted, including over 90% of those over the age of 50.”

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The second factor is that the dominant variant, Omicron, is intrinsically less severe. When we take with the first factor that we now have more protection for the population, the evidence shows that the risk of applying to emergency care or being hospitalized with Omicron is about half that for Delta. Given these dramatic changes, it is not only right, but responsible to reconsider the balance of risks and opportunities that guided our original decision last year.

“While vaccination remains our best line of defense against Covid-19, I believe it is no longer proportional to the demand for vaccination as a requirement to spread through law.

That is why I announce that we will launch a consultation on ending vaccination as a condition for its dissemination in health and all social care sectors. Subject to the responses and will of this council, the government will restore the regulations.”

The health secretary has defended the policy of providing initially mandatory Covid vaccines for the NHS and social care workers.

He said the government “doesn’t make any apologies for that.”

Mr Javid told MPs there was a need to consider the impact on the NHS workforce and social care environments, “particularly at a time when there is already a labor shortage and almost full employment across the economy”.

He added: “In December, I argued, and this board overwhelmingly agreed, that the weight of clinical evidence in favor of vaccination as a requirement for spread outweighs the risks to the workforce.

It was the right policy at the time, backed by clinical evidence, and the government makes no apologies for it. It also proved to be the correct policy later, given the severity of Delta.”

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