A government adviser has said it is "plausible" that a vaccine will be necessary in order to travel internationally following the pandemic.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the UK has never mandated vaccinations - but that this did not mean they might not be necessary to travel abroad.
Speaking on a live coronavirus Q&A with the BBC, the deputy chief medical officer for England was asked if it would be mandatory for international travellers to be vaccinated.
He said: "I don't know the answer to that and I don't think other countries know the answer to that."
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Asked about the necessity of a vaccine for travel and work opportunities, the professor said it was "plausible people will start to frame things that way".
He said the recent discoveries of new variants had made people more cautious.
Asked about the South African variant that has been found in the UK, Professor Van-Tam said it was not a major concern at the moment, adding: "The thing that is going to kill people over the next one to two months in the UK is the problem we have with our own circulating virus which is the Kent variant. "
He claimed data had proven vaccines available here were "very effective against the Kent variant".
He also dismissed rumours which have circulated online that vaccines pose dangers to fertility.
The government adviser said this was a "nasty, pernicious scare story - but that's all it is".
He said the safety of the vaccines was monitored on a "daily basis" and people who have had the vaccine can report any side effects using the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) "yellow card" system.
The professor said he also had concerns that the uptake of the vaccine within ethnic minority groups would not be as rapid or as high as in the white population.
He added: "The big message I have for everyone is this virus this virus just doesn't care what ethnic background you're from, it just doesn't care about the colour of your skin or where you live in the world."
