Mandatory Covid jabs for NHS and social care workers are set to be scrapped, The Telegraph can reveal, after warnings of crippling staff shortages if the plan went ahead.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, will on Monday meet fellow ministers on the Covid-Operations Cabinet committee to rubber stamp the decision on the about-turn.
Multiple government sources said ministers are expected to end the requirement because the omicron Covid variant, now dominant in the UK, is milder than previous strains.
The move comes after warnings that almost 80,000 healthcare workers would be forced out of their jobs because they had declined to take two doses of a Covid vaccine.
- Health Secretary is to announce policy being scrapped later this afternoon
- Royal College of Nursing boss said it made ‘no sense’ to stick to the mandate
- Patricia Marquis warned the policy would leave the health service understaffed
- From this week all NHS staff were supposed to get a Covid vaccine or lose jobs
- But amid reports mandate could be scrapped care bosses said it was ‘frustrating’
AC