Mandatory Covid vaccines for NHS staff are to be axed amid fears of a mass exodus of healthcare workers, reports say.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid will meet ministers on Monday where it is expected the Covid-Operation Cabinet committee will confirm a U-turn ahead of an official announcement later this week.
NHS staff had until February 3 to get a jab but ministers will now reverse the decision due to fears the health service could lose close to 80,000 workers who remain unvaccinated.
According to sources, the Government believes the less severe Omicron variant has changed matters as although it is more transmissible, it is not as virulent.
One senior Government source told The Telegraph: “Omicron has changed things. When we first introduced the policy, it was Delta that was the dominant variant.
“That was very high risk in terms of how severe it was.
"For Omicron, while it is more transmissible, all the studies have shown it is less severe. That has changed the conversation about whether mandatory jabs are still proportionate.”
Asked about reports that there could be a U-turn on the policy, Simon Clarke, chief secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News: "This is a policy we have always kept under review.
"We've been trying to strike, throughout this pandemic, the right balance between having the maximum impact in terms of measures that support public safety in the face of the virus, but also have the minimum impact in terms of our wider freedoms as a society.
"It is in that context that a decision was made last autumn to make sure we went ahead with the mandatory vaccination policy, and that was because we had the Delta variant, extremely dangerous, which took a huge toll on our society and we wanted to make sure that people going into hospital - very vulnerable people, whether they had Covid or another condition that required treatment - weren't going to be faced with an increased risk of infection on the wards.
"We continue to monitor that situation very closely. What we know about Omicron is it is much more transmissible but less severe - any decision that is taken this week will reflect that reality.
"I can't pre-judge the decision that is going to be made but obviously we do recognise those realities, and that does open a space where we can look at this again."
The compulsory vaccine mandate was due to come into force in April, meaning staff had until February 3 to begin the process to become fully vaccinated.
A legal requirement for care workers to be vaccinated came into effect last November, with some providers claiming the requirement had severely damaged the sector due to the loss of staff.
This comes as figures from the health service showed one in 10 NHS staff across London trusts had not received their first dose of the vaccine.
At a regional level, the proportion of NHS staff in London who have not received a first dose stands at 8.7 per cent - the highest in the country.
Across England, 5.1 per cent of staff - the equivalent to 77,591 people - had not received a first dose as of January 23.
Just last week Mr Javid claimed it is the duty of NHS staff to come forward for a vaccine.
He said: “I would just say that it is the professional duty of every health care worker or social care worker to get vaccinated to not only protect themselves, but most of all to protect the people that they look after every day."
Previously, the Standard revealed approximately 1,600 staff at a London trust were at risk of losing their job if they do not receive a first jab ahead of the February deadline.
Earlier this month, Mr Javid was also challenged by a doctor at King’s College Hospital, who refused a vaccine as he had the antibodies from Covid.
