NHS staff ‘to be legally required to have Covid jab’ under Government plans to crack down on transmission in hospitals

NHS staff will be legally required to have the Covid jab under new plans to crack down on transmissions in hospitals, it’s reported.

Tens of thousands of Brits are believed to have caught the virus after being admitted to wards – with almost 9,000 going on to die of the deadly bug.

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Ministers are pressing ahead with plans to ensure care home workers are vaccinated – and it’s believed doctors and nurses will also soon be obliged to get the jab, the Telegraph reports.

If the scheme gets the green light, being vaccinated would become a condition of employment at the NHS, it’s believed.

The plans are currently being discussed, although the Government is said to be “keen”.

It comes amid the huge success of the UK’s rollout, which is believed to be responsible for recent low death tolls – despite rising cases of the Indian mutation.

Almost half of all adults in England will have had their second dose within days, while more than half of all people in their 30s have been inoculated in just over a fortnight.

Those in their 20s will soon be invited in for the shot.

But the publication found more than a fifth of Covid deaths at some hospitals happened after patients were infected on wards.

Meanwhile, a Guardian investigation revealed up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid in hospital while they were being treated for another medical problem.

More than 32,000 people contracted the virus on wards between March 2020 and mid-May.

And up to one in five NHS healthcare workers have yet to have a jab in some areas.

Consultation on making the jab a requirement for workers at care homes closed last week. It’s understood the proposal will go ahead.

A Whitehall source told the paper: “There are very early conversations taking place.

“This has been driven by feedback from the social care consultation on mandating.

“It would save lives and there is precedent with the guidance for doctors to get the hepatitis B vaccine.”

Ministers are also said to be concerned by the numbers of medics who aren’t taking up the jab.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in February found lower Covid vaccination rates among ethnic minority healthcare workers compared to white staff.

Matt Hancock has openly backed plans for care home workers to get the shot.

In March, he said: “Making vaccines a condition is something many care homes have called for to help them provide greater protection for staff and residents in older people’s care homes and so save lives.”

The number of people testing positive for Covid has surged by a quarter in a week – but deaths are still low, with seven more fatalities recorded on Saturday.

The boom in cases is fuelled by the Indian mutation.

And it’s feared the variant may delay plans to lift lockdown altogether on June 21.

Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said ending lockdown should be delayed.

The expert said there’s a “good argument for caution”.

“It’s still going to be a few weeks yet until we’ve got all of the highly clinically vulnerable double-vaccinated and that will probably coincide with the plans to open up more fully,” he told the BBC.

However, Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chairman of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI), told BBC Breakfast on Saturday that people should be “reassured” by the success of the “quite staggeringly effective” Covid vaccines.