The British government is thinking about making COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for healthcare workers to stop the spread of the virus in hospitals, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Sunday.

“It would be incumbent on any responsible government to have the debate, to do the thinking as to how we go about protecting the most vulnerable by making sure that those who look after them are vaccinated,” he told Sky News.

“There is precedent for this; obviously surgeons get vaccinated for hepatitis B. So it’s something that we are absolutely thinking about.”