Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will allow patients who received two covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccinations and who are concerned about mRNA vaccines to choose to have an RPV vaccine, including a further AstraZeneca vaccination, as a booster.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Data from the COV-BOOST trial indicate that booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines are generally well tolerated and provide a substantial increase in vaccine-induced immune responses. In particular, mRNA vaccines provide a strong booster effect, regardless of whether the primary course was with the Pfizer/BioNTech or the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised that those eligible for the COVID-19 booster vaccine should be offered a booster dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or the Moderna vaccine. Where mRNA vaccines cannot be offered, vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine may be considered for those who received that vaccine in the primary course.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will expedite decisions on applications for exemption to managed quarantine from applicants seeking to return to UK in response to relatives becoming seriously ill.
Answered by Maggie Throup
All requests for exemptions from Managed Quarantine are carefully considered. In extremely limited circumstances, an exemption on compassionate grounds may be granted. To expedite the decision-making process applicants should provide supporting medical evidence and apply at least 14 days before travel. Requests for exemptions are identified and prioritised in the same way and applications processed in order of receipt and prioritised based on the proposed date of travel.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to recognise, for the purposes of exemption from managed quarantine, AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccinations given to UK citizens in Gambia through the World Health Organisation's COVAX programme.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We do not exempt people from managed quarantine based on vaccination status. Gambia is not a designated ‘red list’ country, so travellers to the United Kingdom are not required to enter managed quarantine unless they have transited through a country on the ‘red list’.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will review the information made publicly available on covid-19 symptoms.
Answered by Maggie Throup
I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Justin Madders MP) on 23 July to Question 25024.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that covid-19 vaccinations administered in (a) EU member states and (b) other jurisdictions are recognised as valid for entry to UK without the need for quarantine and isolation.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Work is ongoing to determine which non-United Kingdom vaccines could be recognised in this country. Once confirmed, NHSX will provide access to an NHS COVID Pass for those eligible.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the European Medicines Agency on assessment and approval of AstraZeneca covid-19 batches 4120Z001, 4120Z002, 4120Z003.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
No specific discussions have taken place. We are not aware of any advice from the European Medicines Agency on the assessment or approval of specific vaccine batches used in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish daily totals of positive covid-19 tests for passengers arriving from Portugal in the last 30 days.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We have no current plans to publish the information requested on a weekly basis. However, the Joint Biosecurity Centre will be publishing data tables on a three weekly basis to align with their reviews of countries’ risk assessments. These tables are available at the following link:
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What recent progress has been made on vaccinating people against covid-19.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have administered over 60 million vaccine jabs in the United Kingdom, with 75% of the adult population already having received their first dose. Over 25 million people have now received their second dose and
53% of people aged 30 to 39 years have received at least one dose since the programme began opening up to the age group on 13 May. This week, we will open the vaccination programme to ages 25 to 29 years old.
We are on track to meet our vaccination target to offer all adults a vaccine by the end of July.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when recipients of the Janssen covid-19 vaccination will be able to see the record of their vaccination on the NHS app.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Those participating in United Kingdom vaccination trials can request a letter from the trial they are participating in to confirm their vaccination status, which will include vaccine type and dose information. The Government is exploring how vaccine information for those on clinical trials can be linked to the NHS App, as well as to a non-digital solution.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to enable the NHS App to access information relating to patients' (a) physical and mental health, (b) families, (c) lifestyle and social circumstances, (d) ethnicity, (e) biometric details and (f) criminal convictions or alleged criminal behaviour.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The NHS App does not capture or access any information which is not strictly necessary to deliver services to help people manage their health and access essential health services. The NHS App is independently tested against standards set by the National Cyber Security Centre, with extensive assurance work undertaken at each release to ensure it meets those standards.
The COVID-19 Status Certification programme initially issued a Privacy Notice copied from a template which included a standard list of data, many items of which are not collected. That Privacy Notice has since been updated to only include data fields which are collected. Fields such as those relating to ‘criminal convictions or alleged criminal behaviour’ are not relevant and have been deleted.