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A report by the BBC says that anyone going on a Saga holiday or cruise in 2021 must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with the tour operator, which specialises in holidays for the over-50s, saying it wanted to protect customers’ health and safety, adding it would delay restarting its travel packages until May to give customers enough time to get jabs.

People over 50 in the UK have been rushing to book holidays as vaccinations boost confidence, with Saga saying in a statement, “The health and safety of our customers has always been our number one priority at Saga, so we have taken the decision to require everyone travelling with us to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19”, adding, “Our customers want the reassurance of the vaccine and to know others travelling with them will be vaccinated too.”

Saga’s holidays were due to restart in March and its cruises in April after a long hiatus, but they will now both be delayed, with Saga saying that meant all trips before May would no longer go ahead as planned, acknowledging it would be “a huge disappointment” to customers saying “We will be contacting all guests affected to discuss their options.”

Saga also said, its vaccination policy added to stronger safety processes already planned for when its holidays resume, requiring cruise passengers to have a Covid-19 test before their trip, as well as a full medical screening and capacity on its ships will also be kept to a maximum of 800 people.

With the UK having embarked on a mass vaccination programme as Covid-19 cases surge, vaccinations are being issued at a rate of 140 jabs per minute, NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens said this week and experts believe in future that airlines, concert venues and restaurants could routinely ask customers to prove that they have been vaccinated, with another example of this increasing requirement being that last week, London plumbing firm Pimlico Plumbers said that all of its staff would be contractually obliged to get the jab.

An edited report from the BBC by John Alwyn-Jones