Covid-19 Response

Catherine McKinnell Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The answer that I tried to give at the end of my answer—perhaps too long an answer—to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) is that, yes, that is something on which I am working. It is not something that I am able to announce today, but I do recognise the concerns and the challenges that the social care sector faces.

[Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab) [V]]

The number of daily new cases of coronavirus remains above 3,000 and the daily death rate higher than that of other countries, including Italy and Spain. We were slow to go into lockdown, but we now seem to be in a rush to come out, with restrictions relaxed before the test, track and trace system is fully in place, which may well be putting those numbers back on the rise. Does the Secretary of State understand why the public are anxious about the relaxation and the plans to reopen schools given the lack of systems in place now to minimise the risk of adding to the already devastating death toll?