PM ‘making plans’ to add evidence of booster jab to COVID passports
Boris Johnson has raised the prospect of Britons soon needing a booster jab to be considered “fully vaccinated” when going abroad or for self-isolation rules.
Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, the prime minister revealed plans to add evidence of a vaccine top-up to the NHS COVID pass.
He also said Britons would find “life easier in all kinds of ways”, including for foreign travel, with a booster dose.
The PM warned a ‘new wave’ of COVID cases was sweeping across Europe
Following an earlier announcement that the rollout of COVID booster shots will now be extended to all over-40s, Mr Johnson highlighted increased vaccination rates as a means of avoiding the reintroduction of domestic restrictions.
The prime minister warned that “storm clouds are gathering over the continent” with a “new wave” of COVID cases sweeping westwards through Europe, prompting some countries to reimpose coronavirus measures.
He said that “countries with lower vaccination rates have tended to see bigger surges in infection, and in turn been forced to respond with harsher measures”.
“We don’t yet know the extent to which this new wave will wash up on our shores, but history shows we cannot afford to be complacent,” Mr Johnson added.
The prime minister said he saw “nothing in the data at the moment” that would force the government to move to “Plan B” of its winter contingency planning for the NHS, which could see the reintroduction of mandatory face masks or the return of work from home guidance.
But he warned that ministers “cannot rule anything out” when asked about the prospect of a Christmas lockdown.
Boris Johnson met Arzou Miah, who received his booster jab on Monday, during a visit to an east London surgery
Mr Johnson said the “most important thing people can do” to prevent the reimposition of restrictions was to “get the boosters”.
Asked if evidence of a booster jab would be added to the NHS COVID pass, Mr Johnson replied: “I think we will be making plans to add the booster dose to the NHS COVID travel pass.
“But, again, I think what the general lesson is from anybody who wants to travel, you can see that getting fully vaccinated with a booster is going to be something that will, on the whole, make your life easier in all kinds of ways, including on foreign travel.
“So I would just say, if you’re thinking about that, then this is yet another reason to get it done.”
The prime minister later suggested that, at some point, only those who have had a booster jab – which for most people is a third vaccine dose – would be considered “fully vaccinated”.
“On boosters, it’s very clear that getting three jabs, getting your booster, will become an important fact and it will make life easier for you in all sorts of ways,” he said.
“We will have to adjust our concept of what constitutes a full vaccination to take account of that. I think that is increasingly obvious.
“The booster massively increases your protection, it takes it right back up to over 90%. As we can see from what’s happening, the [protections afforded by] two jabs sadly do start to wane.
“We’ve got to be responsible and we’ve got to reflect that fact in the way we measure what constitutes full vaccination.”
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The prime minister said that, so far, around 12.6m people across the UK have had a booster jab.
In England, this includes three-quarters of all people aged over-70 and 80% of eligible older people in care homes.
It would be an “utter tragedy” if people who had had two vaccine doses “ended up becoming seriously ill or even losing their lives because they allowed their immunity to wane”, Mr Johnson added.
A judo Olympian has said her family is “devastated” after the discovery of body in the search for her missing brother.
Lubjana Piovesana, 28, appealed for help to find her younger sibling, Luis, 26, on Saturday. He had not been seen since the early hours of Friday morning.
A body was found in the River Frome near Napier Road in Eastville, Bristol, at around 6pm today, Avon and Somerset Police said.
Formal identification is yet to take place, the force added.
In a post on Instagram, Ms Piovesana wrote: “Hello everyone, Luis has been found.
“We are completely devastated but he has passed away.
“I am grateful for everyone’s support. And I am so sorry this happened.
“Luis was my little brother and loved by everyone. I wish he could have seen the love from everyone. He will be remembered by us all.”
The post was signed off with a dove emoji.
Luis Piovesana did not have any money or his mobile phone with him when he went missing, police said. Pics: Avon & Somerset Police
Mr Piovesana was last seen at around 3am on Friday at the Eastgate retail park, which is less than a 10-minute walk away from where the body was found.
He had travelled there by taxi from a venue in Little Ann Street, St Jude’s, a 10-minute drive away.
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The 26-year-old’s family spent the weekend searching for him, and asked people to check their sheds and gardens.
His partner, Laurin Bohler, said loved ones had travelled from Birmingham to help.
Mounted officers and police drones were also involved in the investigation.
Ms Piovesana competed for Team GB before switching to the Austrian team, and defeated British competitor Lucy Renshall in the women’s -63kg judo event at the Paris Olympics last year.
A man has been jailed for life for murdering his son’s girlfriend after she returned home from the school run.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an address on Bigyn Road in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 5 July last year.
Sophie Evans, 30, had sustained 72 separate injuries on the outside of the body, “all but three of them new injuries”.
Richard Jones, who is now 50, believed he was “being taken advantage of financially” by Ms Evans and his son, with whom she was in a relationship.
While the purpose of Jones’s visit was “purely normal”, he confronted her on that morning about his suspicions and Ms Evans’s reaction was such that Jones “lost [his] temper”.
He subjected Ms Evans to “gross violence” before ultimately strangling her and leaving the property to run errands, including ordering a new bank card and buying pastries from a bakery.
Richard Jones. Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police
‘Last time on their school run’
During sentencing on Monday, the defendant kept his head bowed for most of the hearing.
He will have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ms Evans was the mother of two young children.
Passing his sentence, Judge Geraint Walters said Ms Evans “had just taken her two children for the last time on their school run” prior to the attack.
“She wasn’t to know that when she parted company with them that morning,” he added.
The court heard the Jones believed he was being defrauded by Ms Evans and his son.
“There is clear evidence, that in the days leading up to this, that you had begun harbouring thoughts that Sophie Evans and your own son were in fact financially scamming you,” he said.
“What precisely brought about that view is difficult to determine.”
Judge Walters said Jones “lost [his] temper when [he] didn’t get the answer that [he] thought [he] deserved”.
He added that, having lost his temper, the defendant “subjected [Ms Evans] to gross violence over a period of time, before you ultimately extinguished her life by strangulation”.
The court was told in evidence that at the time of the attack, Ms Evans was wearing only a bath towel.
‘The rock of our family’
In a victim personal statement, Ms Evans’s sister Kerry Quinlan told the court she was “the rock of our family”.
She said Ms Evans was taken from them in a “senseless and cruel act”.
“Words cannot express fully how much of a loss this has been to her children,” she added.
“When they cry themselves to sleep wanting their mum, she isn’t there and never will be.”
Ms Quinlan added that Jones had “taken everything from us, all in the most despicable way possible”.
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Ms Evans’s partner at the time, and the defendant’s son, Jamie Davies, said in a victim personal statement, read on his behalf, that they had both “trusted” Jones, and that Ms Evans had even been planning the defendant’s 50th birthday.
“The thought of having to live my life without Sophie causes me extreme pain and heartache,” he added.
Prosecuting, Michael Jones KC said the offence was aggravated by the defendant’s previous convictions and the fact Ms Evans was murdered in her home.
In mitigation, David Elias KC said there was a “lack of premeditation”.
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