By Ben Kerrigan-
British minister has said that the government will need to be “very cautious” about allowing Britons to freely travel abroad again.
The comments by Transport minister, Mr Shapps, came as the minister confirmed that an NHS app will be used to allow Britons to demonstrate whether they have had a COVID jab, or tested negative for the virus, before travelling abroad.
Government sources clarified the app would not be the NHS COVID app – currently used to “check in” to venues such as pubs and restaurants for contact-tracing purposes – but would instead be the NHS app used to book general appointments.
“It will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments with the NHS and so on, to be able to show you’ve had a vaccine or that you’ve had testing,” he added.
“I’m working internationally with partners across the world to make sure that system can be internationally recognised.”
Mr Shapps said he was awaiting data from the government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre before being able to state which countries would be deemed “green”, “amber” or “red” under the traffic light system.
“Beyond our shores we are seeing the highest levels of coronavirus that we have seen so far in the entire pandemic, right now,” he added.
“So we do need to make sure we do this very, very carefully – we don’t want to throw away the lockdown, we don’t want to throw away our remarkable rollout in this country of the vaccination.
“You will still need to take a pre-departure test and one test on your return.
“I think people are getting very used to testing now, not least because we provide testing up to twice a week for everyone in the country right now. So I don’t think a test itself is a big deal.”
The British government would be monitoring vaccination rates, infection levels, concerns about coronavirus variants, and the accuracy of a country’s COVID reporting when deciding how to categorise foreign destination, Mr Shapps also said
A number of European countries have already said they hoping to welcome tourists this summer.
Portugal’s ambassador to the UK, Manuel Lobo Antunes, told Sky News he was “hopeful” British holidaymakers could be allowed to travel to his country by the middle of May.