Government set to scrap mandatory vaccines for NHS and social care workers in England

Mandatory Covid vaccines will effectively be scrapped for NHS and social care staff in England – after warnings from some health professionals that it would lead to a “catastrophic impact” on staff numbers and services.

Until today’s U-turn – if frontline NHS workers were not fully vaccinated by April 1st they would have to be redeployed or dismissed. That meant they would have had to get their first jab by this Thursday – and our FactCheck team estimate some 52,000 employees without a medical exemption have not so far got vaccinated.