“I don’t think it should just be us” - Halifax nightclubs react to Government’s plan for all entrants to be double-jabbed

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday (Monday) that people attending nightclubs from September will need to be fully vaccinated.

Currently nightclubs and other crowded venues are only encouraged to ask clubbers to show proof of vaccination, a negative test result or immunity.

Simon Jackson owner of the Acapulco nightclub in Halifax, said: “You’ve got to do what’s going to keep people safe, if they’ve got scientists and people far cleverer than we are telling us that’s what we need to do, then we need to do that to make sure people are safe.

“I know some people have said they’re not going to do it, but at the end of the day, if it’s for people’s health and safety, I think we’re going to have to give it a go.”

When asked if he thinks the idea will be met with resistance among nightclubs, he said: “I think so, especially if it’s just the nightclubs.

“I’ve seen a lot of people jumping up and down in crowded areas in pubs watching football, and in football stadiums, but I think it should be the same if you’re going to go on a plane and travel in that tube for two or three hours in the same air, I think it needs to be across the board.

“I know they’ve said nightclubs, but I don’t think it should just be nightclubs, I think it should include football stadiums, anything where there’s mass gatherings.”

ATIK’s general manager Philip Haslam said: “To say we are disappointed by this Government’s U-turn is an understatement. Jonathan Van Tam’s talk of his party in his garden shed shows how little this government and their scientists understand the modern club. Nightclubs have the best air ventilation systems in hospitality retail and most other settings-with changing air on average every five minutes. Who else does that?

“We can sanitise and clean just like any other venue and there is no difference between a club and a most pubs at midnight. It should be down to individual risk assessments in line with the specialist scientific advice we have received.

“We are no more than a political football. Mandatory Covid passports may make sense once the entire adult population has been offered vaccines, but does government really think this threat will entice the vaccine wary to take the vaccine? They will just stay later in the pubs and hold their parties in their houses.”