Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of collecting a sample for COVID-19 testing through self-swabbing home test kits in comparison to tests administered by medical professionals.
Answered by Lord Bethell
International peer reviewed evidence, and real-world assessments from the Department’s testing programme has shown that swab tests taken by non-clinically trained individuals are just as effective as those taken by clinicians. Instructions on how to perform these types of tests are included wherever individuals are asked to undertake self-swabbing.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what formal statistical confidence limit is represented by the very likely upper and lower bounds on the estimated COVID-19 reproduction rate, R, as published on the government website.
Answered by Lord Bethell
R is an average value that can vary in different parts of the country and communities. It cannot be measured directly, and calculating R becomes more uncertain when using small numbers of cases, either due to lower infection rates or smaller geographical areas.
Even when the overall United Kingdom R estimate is below 1, some regions may have R estimates that include ranges that exceed 1, for example from 0.7 to 1.1. This does not necessarily mean the epidemic regionally is increasing, just that the uncertainty in the data means it cannot be ruled out.
Estimates of R for geographies smaller than regional level are less reliable and it is more appropriate to identify local hotspots through, for example, monitoring numbers of cases, hospitalisations, and deaths.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were discharged from hospital to care homes in England in each of the last 12 weeks; and how many of those people had been tested for COVID-19. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
At the beginning of June 2020, NHS England published an analysis of hospital discharges to care homes between 30 January 2020 and 16 April 2020, with a comparison to care home discharged from the same period in 2019. A copy of this analysis is attached, due to the size of the data. The information on how many of those people had tested for COVID-19 is not currently published to the level of detail requested.
As of 1 June, there had been 153,836 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in England.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 5 May (HL3910), what was the (1) number, and (2) percentage, of returned home COVID-19 test kits that were void due to an inadequate self-swabbed sample.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As of 25 May 2020, 9,761 COVID-19 home test kits received a void result. This equates to 4.8% of all returned home test kits.
It is important to note that a void result can be caused by a number of factors. This includes inadequate or incorrect self-swabbing, a failure of the user to return the swab in a timely manner, or other factors that prevent the sample from being efficiently returned and processed.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they informed NHS England's Director of Primary Care of their intention to update the guidance for people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 to advise that they can now leave their homes if they wish.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have engaged extensively with NHS England and NHS Improvement via the Department’s Clinical Oversight Group, of which NHS England and NHS Improvement are members, and through several stakeholder calls throughout the process of updating the guidance and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 1 June (HL4872), why they will not publish the reproduction index for the COVID-19 virus for each region of the UK on a weekly basis, alongside the United Kingdom-wide range.
Answered by Lord Bethell
R is an average number and so can be highly uncertain if based on small quantities of data. R should be considered alongside the number of new cases. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ view is that it is unhelpful to use estimates of R rates to monitor the epidemic in different regions.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 home tests they have (1) delivered to care homes, and (2) processed, each day since they began to distribute such tests.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England’s Health Protection Teams have, from the outset, been testing residents when an outbreak is reported at a particular care home. More than 41,000 residents have been tested through this route. On 15 April, the Government extended testing to essential workers, including symptomatic care home staff. Since then, the Care Quality Commission has referred over 34,000 care workers for testing. We are now prioritising up to 30,000 tests per day for staff and residents at care homes in England that look after over 65s.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that COVID-19 related fatalities of (1) NHS staff, (2) social workers, and (3) care workers, are accurately reported.
Answered by Lord Bethell
On 29 April 2020 the Government introduced a new daily death reporting protocol which includes deaths that have occurred in all settings where there has been a positive COVID-19 test such as hospitals, care homes and the wider community.
The number of deaths of National Health Service healthcare workers is verified from direct reports from NHS employing and non-NHS organisations. This information is investigated and triangulated by NHS England to give a high level of confidence of validity.
The Office for National Statistics also publishes statistics on deaths involving COVID-19 by occupation, including rates and counts of deaths of social workers and care workers.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish finer-resolution data on hospital admissions statistics, to assist with understanding the optimal admission, treatment, and resource allocation strategies.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Data on Hospital Episodes Statistics is published by NHS Digital and the latest available data is for 2018/19. Annual data for 2019/20 is due to be published in October 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the R number, the reproduction index for the COVID-19 virus, for each region of the UK. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government Office for Science currently publishes the latest estimate of the United Kingdom-wide range for R on a weekly basis. The current range is estimated to be 0.7-1.0 and is based on the latest data available to determine infection and transmission rates.
The Government is committed to publishing the scientific evidence that has informed the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice. These papers are being published in batches. The latest batches were released on 20 May and 22 May and the next batch will be published in due course. The full list of papers reviewed to date is available in an online only format on the GOV.UK page, ‘The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE): Coronavirus (COVID-19) response’. This list will be updated to reflect papers considered at recent and future meetings.