Missing Covid travel passes will be restored to NHS app on Thursday, says health service

Following reports that Covid travel passes were being deleted from users’ NHS apps after they reported a positive test, the missing passes are expected to be restored on Thursday.

Users of the health service app, where you can store and download a PDF of your proof of vaccination (the NHS Covid Pass) for domestic or travel purposes, had been automatically deleting users’ passes after they received a positive test, the i reports.

“It is not yet clear what time exactly the passes will return,” says the paper.

Earlier in the week, the NHS app help team was emailing users saying: “If you are vaccinated, following a positive PCR or LFT test your existing Covid passes will be suspended for five days from the date and time that the test was recorded.”

The disappearing passes caused havoc for people’s holidays, with passes not being reinstated for five days after the test result.

Now, sources have told the i that all Covid passes will be returned to NHS apps from this Thursday, 24 February.

Since the bulk of the UK’s Covid restrictions are being lifted from Thursday, this auto-disappearance of Covid passes for those who test positive is also expected to end.

The UK’s Covid Pass, provided by the NHS app and available to download, is crucial to foreign trips and holidays, with most destinations asking for proof of vaccination on entry and many requiring it to enter local venues while abroad.

The NHS app has previously been hit with more than one outage, leaving travellers stranded or delayed when they could not access their proof of vaccination on their smartphone.

The Independent advises holidaymakers to both download the PDF version of your Covid Pass - these expire after 30 days, so need to be downloaded freshly before a trip - as well as printing off a few copies in case of any tech issues.

On Monday, Boris Johnson announced an end to legal self-isolation requirements in England among other major changes to come in on Thursday, as part of the government’s Living with Covid plan.

The government will also no longer ask vaccinated contacts of those who test positive to test for seven days, and will remove the legal requirement for contacts who are not vaccinated to self-isolate.

Free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing will end for the general public in England from April 1.

Scotland announced separate changes to its Covid measures, such as an end to vaccine passports on Monday 28 February and the legal requirement to wear face masks in some settings to be scrapped from 21 March.

Wales is expected to announce longer-term plans for living with Covid alongside the outcome of its latest review of regulations on 4 March; while Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann has said his department will “carefully consider” the Living with Covid plan unveiled in England.