HAIRDRESSERS and beauticians who work in care homes will have to be Covid vaccinated by law, ministers have announced.
Downing Street said that everyone working in a home will have to be double jabbed under new laws set to kick in in October this year.
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The new law applies to everyone working at a care home – including plumbers, healthcare workers, beauticians, hairdressers and inspectors.
Ministers are consulting on plans to also make the jab mandatory for NHS staff as well.
While No10 is also considering making the flu vaccine compulsory for health and social care staff.
Boris Johnson is backing hugely controversial plans to make it illegal for care home workers to refuse the jab amid growing alarm that so many are refusing.
But care bosses slammed the move – warning the crisis-plagued system will collapse if staff decide to quit rather than get the jab.
National Care Association boss Nadra Ahmed said forcing people to have the jab for their job is “whole new territory”.
She said: “We have 112,000 vacancies in our sector.
“If we lost the other 16-17 per cent who do not want to have this vaccine, we will find a sector in collapse.” Unison boss Christina McAnea said: “The only way out of the pandemic is for everyone that can to have their jabs.
“Encouragement has the best results and research shows coercion makes the nervous less likely to be vaccinated.
“The government’s sledgehammer approach now runs the risk that some care staff may simply walk away from an already understaffed, undervalued and underpaid sector.”
