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Covid Pass Blunder Could Ban You From Travelling To Holiday Hotspots
Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Covid Pass Blunder Could Ban You From Travelling To Holiday Hotspots

A blunder with Covid vaccine records means that some people may not be able to go ahead with their travel plans.

A blunder with Covid vaccine records means that some people may not be able to go ahead with their travel plans.

According to reports, more than one million vaccine records contained errors, resulting in thousands being turned away from their desired destination and the possibility of more refusals in future.

NHS App (Alamy)
NHS App (Alamy)

The issue occurred when data relating to people's jabs was either missing or entered incorrectly when it was submitted into the centralised database.

This meant that Covid vaccine passes were not available to many, even if they were double-jabbed.

Covid passes are supposed to be available through the NHS app, and proof of vaccination is required by a long list of countries.

According to the Telegraph, 1,072,070 Covid vaccine records have had to be corrected.

However, the actual number is estimated to be higher, with more than 200,000 records needing alteration last year before the summer holidays.

Some people have even had to resort to getting a third jab after they were unable to get their vaccine records updated.

One person reportedly attempted to update their record 100 times, after only one of their jabs were recorded.

NHS Weight Loss Injection.
Alamy

Last August, in an effort to rectify the issues, the NHS launched a Vaccine Data Resolution Service, which has resolved 184,000 such cases.

However, with experts from some countries suggesting that vaccine passports should also include records of booster jabs, this administrative issue could be far from over.

In Canada, Dr. Peter Juni of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table claimed that any decision to add booster jabs to vaccine passports needed to be made quickly.

He explained, 'If we would want to change our definitions for a vaccine certificate from two to three doses, it would need to be done very swiftly'.

Juni went on to add, 'It wouldn't make sense if we start to implement something like that only [in the] second half of March. That's too late.'

Echoing the belief that the approach to tracking Omicron needs to be change, Dr Theresa Tam added, 'What we need to do going forward, as we emerge out of this Omicron wave, is recognise this virus is not going to disappear. We need to be able to address the ongoing presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a more sustainable way.'

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Topics: UK News, World News, Travel