The UK government plans to revoke mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for health workers in England after warnings that an already-stretched service could face crippling staff shortages.

Health minister Sajid Javid said the government would launch a consultation into whether the policy announced in November was still needed.

“While vaccination remains our very best line of defence against COVID-19 I believe that it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute,” Javid told parliament. 

The policy had required National Health Service (NHS) employees and social care workers to be fully vaccinated by April 1, with all staff due to receive their first shot later this week to meet that deadline.

The policy has met resistance from some workers, with warnings that sacking those who did not comply could leave the NHS facing significant staff shortages, while a number of MPs in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party have also criticised the decision.

Treasury Minister Simon Clarke earlier said the government was prepared to look again at the policy in light of the emergence of the Omicron variant, which is more transmissible but results in milder symptoms.

“We do recognise those realities and that does open a space where we can look at this again,” Mr Clarke told Sky News.

More than 156,000 people across the UK have died in the pandemic.

But the backlash against mandatory vaccination is in line with wider sentiment across the world as people from the United States to Ukraine argue that such rules violate human rights and civil liberties.

However, governments say vaccinations are crucial to contain the spread and reducing severity of the infections, and thereby cut down cases that need to be hospitalised.

Meanwhile, British foreign minister Liz Truss has tested positive and is self-isolating at home.

Truss, who announced plans in parliament on Monday to toughen sanctions on Russia if it invaded Ukraine, was due to visit Kyiv this week as part of diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis.

“I tested positive for COVID this evening,” Truss said on Twitter. 

“Thankfully I’ve had my three jabs and will be working from home while I isolate.”

AAP

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