Get ready for Covid jab passports at busy pubs that don’t do enough to tackle infections, warns Boris Johnson

Large venues such as nightclubs and city-centre bars could be forced to bring in Covid passports if they don’t do enough to tackle infections, ministers warned last night.

Boris Johnson said he would be ‘urging’ venues with large crowds to make use of the NHS Covid Pass, which allows people to gain entry if they have had both jabs or a negative test.

Just a week after ministers pledged that the Covid passports would not be brought in this summer, official government guidance stated they could become mandatory if venues did not do enough to limit infection.

Just a week after ministers pledged that the Covid passports would not be brought in this summer, official government guidance stated they could become mandatory

Ministers would not say exactly which venues would be encouraged to bring in the passports – but did say they included places where people were ‘likely to be in close proximity to others outside their household’. 

This could mean theatres, cinemas, busy pubs, indoor concerts and any other crowded indoor event. 

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Announcing that venues would be able to return to full capacity from next Monday, Mr Johnson said: ‘As a matter of social responsibility, we’re urging nightclubs and other venues with large crowds to make use of the NHS Covid Pass.’

The Music Venue Trust said the charity ‘warmly welcomes’ the return to full-capacity concerts from next week, while Theatres Trust director Jon Morgan said the sector would do everything it could to ensure its spaces were safe.

Boris Johnson said he would be ‘urging’ venues with large crowds to make use of the NHS Covid Pass

Greg Parmley, chief executive of music industry trade body LIVE, said it was a ‘fantastic day for live music’, but renewed calls for a government-backed insurance scheme for the live-events sector.

He said: ‘Commercial insurance is still not available – meaning organisers are faced with the prospect of huge financial losses should any restrictions need to change.

‘If the Government really wants us to get back on our feet, they need to make live events financially viable, provide the insurance scheme they have promised and give the industry the confidence to invest for the long term.’

Most patients now younger 

More under-35s are being admitted to hospital with Covid than over-75s, the head of the NHS said last night.

‘That is a complete inversion of what we’ve seen until now and that is principally because of the magic of vaccination,’ Sir Simon Stevens told the Royal Society of Medicine.

In January nearly two thirds of Covid patients were over 65 but now that most older adults are double jabbed, the bulk are young and unvaccinated.

Sir Simon urged more to have vaccinations as the rollout has slowed dramatically.

All over-18s are eligible but only 42,000 first doses were delidailyered yesterday compared with 500,000 a day in March.

Sir Simon said: ‘About three in five 18 to 24-year-olds have had their first dose. We’d love to get more coming forward.’