People could get ‘immunity certificates’ after catching Covid or having vaccine.

 The certificates could offer holders freedom from coronavirus restrictions.

Coronavirus ‘immunity certificates’ could be issued to anyone who recovers from a confirmed Covid infection or gets vaccinated, the government’s science advisers have said. Experts from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said an ‘exemption’ from restriction measures is ‘likely to be possible’ in a paper published on Friday.

Plans are already in place to free people from self-isolation orders in the coming months if they take frequent tests that come back negative.

But the Sage panel has now ruled that those who fight off the virus are so unlikely to catch it a second time that they could avoid having to follow the same rules as the rest of the country for months after recovering.

Immunity certificates would apply similarly to anyone inoculated with an approved vaccine, as both groups are protected from new infections in the same way.

The experts said the trials ‘suggest that a high degree of immunity to Covid-19 disease can be obtained, at least in the short-term’.