Compulsory Covid jabs for NHS workers could be delayed after protests across UK

Mandatory Covid vaccines for all NHS workers could be pushed back ‘by six months’ following huge protests over the matter, new reports are detailing today.

Back in November, the health secretary announced that double Covid vaccination will be made compulsory for all NHS staff -porters, cleaners and receptionists included – from April 1st 2022.

This means unvaccinated workers – which currently stands at more than 80,000 – will need to have their first jab by February 3rd to comply with the rules, or the possibility of losing their jobs.

However, thousands of NHS staff pushed back against the mandate this weekend in a series of nation-wide protests; here in Manchester, hundreds of workers marched through the city centre brandishing placards with slogans like ‘no NHS mandates’ and ‘nurses against mandates’. 

Hundreds more descended upon Downing Street in London, where they were seen laying down their uniform and scrubs in protest.

One Ambulance worker even left their uniform hanging in Regent’s Park emblazoned with the message: ‘Paramedic 9 years, clapping on Thursday, spat out on Monday.’

And now, following a weekend of mass protesting and several MPs expressing their own disagreement with it, it has emerged that the Prime Minister is ‘considering’ delaying the mandate.

A Whitehall source told The Telegraph that Boris Johnson is reportedly considering ‘kicking it down the road’ mainly to avoid a potential Tory revolt. 

The newspaper reports that if Johnson were to push back the deadline, it would be delayed by six months, ostensibly to give workers time to get their third jab.

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Such a delay is also likely to reassure some MPs opposed to the move that it will ultimately not transpire.

Johnson has previously addressed the issue surrounding NHS mandates in The Commons, where he said it is a ‘very difficult point when it comes to patients who have contracted fatal Covid’ in hospital.

He said: “I have to think also of those who will be at the bedside of elderly and vulnerable people who are dying of nosocomial-acquired Covid, and their feelings about our failures to get vaccination rates up high enough within the NHS.

“Nobody wants to have compulsory vaccination but, since the policy was announced, rates of vaccination within the NHS have gone up notably.”