Public Health

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con) [V]]

I would like to start by paying tribute to the NHS staff and care workers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to care for people suffering from this dreadful virus, and to all those who have been involved in setting up testing centres and the new vaccination centres. They, once again, have had to work incredible hours over the festive period to make our lives more tolerable and to enable people to be tested and vaccinated.

The situation in London tonight is at a critical stage. The report suggests that London hospital capacity is at 99.7%, which does not leave any room for people suffering from covid to be transported to hospital. Equally, the new variant appears to be causing this huge rise in the transmission rate, and the last data showed that every London borough is experiencing an increase in the transmission rate across the board.

In the last public data, my borough was sitting at 632 cases per 100,000 population, yet tonight the report says it is 792—a dramatic increase once again. All the boroughs across London are experiencing these problems, and testing is definitely the answer, but there is a confusing message.

I ask my hon. Friend the Minister for Care to ensure that people understand the process by which they should go for a test. By definition, if we have walk-in centres, some people are walking in thinking that that is all they have to do to get a test. They are not phoning ahead to book a test, or even going on the website to make sure of the correct advice before they turn up. Even more confusingly, in some cases people are literally walking in and getting a test, whereas others are being turned away.

I am also concerned about the position of the vaccine centres. The reality is that, if we now advise people that one jab will be sufficient and that they should wait 12 weeks for the next jab, this will potentially lead to a source of confusion. One of the problems we are going to experience is that people can still carry covid-19 and infect others, even after they have had a vaccine. We need to be clear on that position so that people do not go out and inadvertently cause further infections and transmissions.

The position of learning-disabled people on the vaccination priority list is also an issue. They appear to be just included based on the age range, but in many cases learning-disabled people need the assistance of a carer to attend a vaccine centre. They are not necessarily able to do that by themselves.

We must also take into account the economic impact of this dreadful virus. We have heard about the hospitality industry, but there are many people who have received no help whatsoever from the Government. They may have changed jobs at just the wrong time, or they may be self-employed and unable to produce accounts—we could go through the list. Those people desperately need assistance. In my own borough, unemployment has doubled since the pandemic began. We had virtually full employment, so we were in a position to cope with that, but that has not been the case in many other parts of the country.

On vaccination rates, the reality is that if we vaccinate 1 million people a week, it will take 14 months to vaccinate the whole population. If we can do 2 million a week, we will reduce it to seven months, but that is still far too long. There are also people out there who will resist having the vaccine. We have to promote the vaccine and encourage people to have it as quickly as possible, so that we can get back to as near normal as possible by Easter and beyond. Then we can make sure that the economy bounces back and people are safe.

Finally, I ask my hon. Friend the Minister for Care to respond to this point. The whole of London is in tier 4 right now, but the position in Harrow is confusing because it appears that all the primary schools in the surrounding boroughs will be closed from next Monday, whereas those in Harrow will be open. That seems to be confusing everyone, given that we are in the same position as every other London borough.