Actress Joanna Lumley has said she is happy to be a “pin cushion” when it comes to Covid jabs and is due to have her booster dose this week.
The 75-year-old has just returned from travelling in Europe for work and said people there are “quite used” to having Covid passports showing their vaccination status.
The Absolutely Fabulous star said it is “terrific” to be able to do whatever she can to help in the pandemic.
She told the PA news agency: “We’ve got used to using Covid passports and I’m about to have my booster jab, my third one (dose), tomorrow and I shall just go on being a pin cushion until they say it’s time to stop.
“Anything you can do, terrific.”
She said she had just come back from making programmes in Berlin, Paris and Rome.
She said: “You have to show them (Covid passports) everywhere you go – you go into a restaurant you have to show it, you go into a shop you have to show it. So we’re quite used to it, on the continent now everybody’s doing it.”
Her comments come after Boris Johnson indicated booster jabs will be added to the NHS Covid pass and a top-up dose could become part of the definition of someone being fully vaccinated.
The British prime minister said getting three jabs “will make life easier” including when it comes to travel abroad.
Currently, the NHS Covid pass in England lets someone show the details of their coronavirus vaccine status domestically and when travelling abroad to some countries or territories.
It was announced on Monday that the booster programme will be extended to include people aged 40 and over.
Mr Johnson said getting a top-up jab “will become an important fact”, in light of research showing waning immunity after two doses.
He told a Downing Street press conference: “I think that we will be making plans to add the booster dose to the NHS Covid travel pass.
“But again, I think what the general lesson is for anybody who wants to travel, you can see that getting fully vaccinated with a booster is going to be something that will, on the whole, make your life easier in all kinds of ways including foreign travel.
“So I would just say, if you’re thinking about that, that this is yet another reason to get it done.”
