Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK Health Security Agency’s observation that “in the UK, the current surveillance systems do not support an assessment of comparative severity between variants”, published on 14 September; and what plans they have to increase PCR testing and COVID-19 surveillance in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Trends in disease severity and outcomes can be monitored over time through hospital data. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) receives vital data from those who are admitted to hospital with symptoms, and UKHSA is using genome sequencing to detect and assess severity and vaccine effectiveness against new variants.
While reduced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in the community limits comparisons of variant severity, surveillance metrics based on current testing continue to provide useful indicators of recent trends.
UKHSA retains laboratory capacity and an ability to scale PCR and lateral flow device testing back up should it be needed.
Planning for the restart of community surveillance for the winter season, when health pressures usually rise, is in progress. A national surveillance report is published every two weeks, and this will increase to once every week in the winter season.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) what plans they have to monitor the development of the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant in the UK; and (2) to what extent PCR testing will support monitoring the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency conducts routine monitoring and surveillance of COVID-19 and the emergence and spread of new variants internationally via a range of surveillance systems and genomics capabilities, which report infection rates, hospitalisations and the risks posed by new variants, including the BA.2.86 variant.
The Government has maintained essential COVID-19 surveillance activities in primary and secondary care, and in high-risk settings. Currently a technical briefing is published every week, reviewing the data and risk assessing BA.2.86 and other variants.
We use Polymerase Chain Reaction testing for genomic sequencing to monitor and detect and assess vaccine effectiveness against new variants.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the detection of the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant in the UK, what assessment they have made of COVID-19 PCR testing (1) capacity, and (2) availability in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appropriate levels of testing for COVID-19, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing have remained to support diagnosis for clinical care and treatment, and to protect very high-risk individuals and settings.
Lateral flow device (LFD) testing is predominantly used and continues to be effective in detecting positive results, including of new variants. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) currently holds a stock of LFDs to support current testing policy and enable expanded deployment, should cases rise or risks to the National Health Service increase.
UKHSA continues to monitor prevalence and other factors to determine if additional testing, either LFD or PCR, is needed.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support, including financial, Integrated Care Boards have received to enact the Government’s precautionary action to bring forward COVID-19 and flu vaccinations this autumn.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The acceleration of the COVID-19 and flu programme was laid out in a system letter on 30 August 2023, which has been published on NHS.UK in an online-only format.
In addition to the financial arrangements set out in the Autumn 2023 GP and Community Pharmacies enhanced service specifications, and Standard Contract schedules, interim arrangements to support programme acceleration have been put in place to recognise additional administrative, organisation and delivery costs.
Commissioned providers are able to claim an additional acceleration payment of £10, in addition to the Item of Service (IoS) fee, for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to care home residents between Monday 11 September and Sunday 22 October 2023 inclusive; and a separate one-off additional payment of £200 for each completed care home by 11.59pm on Sunday 22 October 2023 that is confirmed to the commissioner by the submission of a live time survey no later than 11.59pm on Sunday 29 October 2023.
To support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccinations to other eligible cohorts, an additional £5 acceleration payment, in addition to the IoS fee, is available for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to eligible people between 11 September and 31 October 2023, excluding care home residents, housebound people, and any health and care worker vaccinations commissioned under the NHS Standard Contract.
The COVID-19 vaccination primary care service specifications and NHS Standard Contract schedules have been updated to reflect the financial arrangements outlined above in line with usual processes.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of a community surveillance method, such as the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey, to monitor the spread of COVID-19 this autumn and during the upcoming winter.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The approach to COVID-19 surveillance is being actively reviewed by the UK Health Security Agency. Protecting the public from COVID-19 remains one of our top priorities. We continue to monitor the threat posed by COVID-19 through our range of surveillance systems and genomics capabilities, which report on infection rates, hospitalisations and the risks posed by new variants.