Covid-19 Update

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Nobody has been deprioritised: the nation has been prioritised according to clinical need, and that is rightly a judgment for the JCVI. It has of course looked into the research and data the hon. Lady rightly raises and has come to the view that the level of risk for those who are clinically extremely vulnerable is akin to the level of risk for those who are 70 to 75 years of age, and that is the reason for the prioritisation decision it has taken.

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

Despite all the sacrifices we have made in South Shields, we are one of the top 50 coronavirus hotspots. That is not surprising since centralised contact tracing is failing us. Just today, it has been revealed that contact tracing companies subcontracted by Serco are using inexperienced and unqualified people to gather vital clinical information. Will the Secretary of State publish a list of those companies and allow my local public health experts to take control of the situation?

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Lady’s local public health experts are already working with the national system. I gently say that instead of trying to divide people with this public-private split, as the Opposition seem desperate to do, the best way to get the case rate down in South Shields is for us all to get on the same page with public health messaging. If for every time she asked me a question about Serco, she asked me a question about how we could work together to keep people alive and safe in South Tyneside, South Shields would be in a better place.