Coronavirus vaccines to be made mandatory for frontline NHS staff in England, Health Secretary announces

Sajid Javid told the House of Commons that “we must avoid preventable harm to patients” adding that staff will have until April 1 to make sure that they have received two doses of an approved jab.

He explained: “Having considered the consultation responses, the advice of my officials and NHS leaders including the chief executive of the NHS, I have concluded that all those working in the NHS and social care will have to be vaccinated.

“We must avoid preventable harm and protect patients in the NHS, protect colleagues in the NHS and of course protect the NHS itself.”

Mr Javid said only those who do not have face-to-face contact with patients or who are medically exempt will not be required to have two doses of a Covid jab, with enforcement of the rule from April next year.

Staff will not be required to have a winter flu vaccination, he added.

Among all NHS staff in Yorkshire and the North East, 94.9 per cent have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 92.4 per cent have had a second injection as well, according to health service data.

This leaves just over 5 per cent of total NHS staff across the region unvaccinated.

Mr Javid praised the vaccination programme for helping the country into the winter months “in a much stronger position than last year,” with the vast majority of people having taken up the offer of a vaccine.

“Across the UK the overwhelming majority of us have made the positive choice to accept the offer of vaccines against Covid-19, almost eight in every 10 people over the age of 12 have chosen to be double jabbed and over 10 million people have now received their boosters or third jabs,” he said.

The move comes after social care workers needed to be double jabbed by this week, or face losing their jobs.

Care providers have voiced their concerns about homes not being able to cope if staff are forced out of the profession for being unvaccinated, with tens of thousands of employees across the sector recorded as not having had both doses by October 31.