THE Government is expected to announce a U-turn on mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS and social care workers, according to reports.

Sajid Javid has been facing pressure to scrap the requirement for health workers in England to be vaccinated by April amid fears it will lead to a major staffing crisis.

The Health Secretary is set to meet ministers on the Covid-Operations Cabinet committee on Monday to confirm the U-turn, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper reported that the Government is ending the policy because Omicron is milder than previous variants.

It comes after the Department of Health and Social Care said last Monday there were no plans to change the policy following a number of reports suggesting ministers were considering an 11th-hour delay.

However, the Health Secretary said on Tuesday that the policy is being “kept under review”.

Mr Javid said that it was “right” to reflect on Covid-19 policies but he added that frontline NHS staff should get a Covid-19 jab as a “professional duty”.

He went on to say that plans for compulsory jabs were made when the Delta variant of the virus was the dominant strain in the UK, but now “almost all” cases are the Omicron variant which is “intrinsically less severe”.

Meanwhile, Conservative MPs welcomed the reports of a U-turn on Sunday with Andrew Rosindell tweeting that Mr Javid had made “the right decision”.

He said: “These free-thinking NHS workers’ jobs are saved and quite right too.

“Well done all those who had the courage to stand up for the values of a free society!”

Meanwhile, Mark Harper called the reported decision a “huge win”.