Covid-19

Jeffrey M Donaldson Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend asks a really important question. The answer is, of course, that we must look at what the data tell us. There are several important data. The R is perhaps the crucial one, but we also look at rates of admissions to hospitals and new infections. If those facts change—if things turn around, and if the British public can do what they did before and get this virus down and get it under control—then of course we will review the measures and review the situation.

[Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Lagan Valley) (DUP)]

The Prime Minister is right that testing is a vital part of the Government’s response to the coronavirus. Will he join me in commending companies like Randox and Fortress Diagnostics in Northern Ireland, which have played a vital role at national level in delivering the Government’s testing programme? Randox has committed 99% of its covid testing capacity to that programme, and on 19 September it successfully reported almost 10,000 samples beyond its committed daily rate. Will the Prime Minister consider providing access to testing through local community pharmacies to expand the capacity and public accessibility to testing at this time?

[The Prime Minister]

I do indeed congratulate Randox and all the other businesses involved. We are massively expanding testing the whole time. It is very important for the House to understand that testing alone cannot fix this problem. There is a hiatus in the logic of the attacks that are sometimes mounted. The problem we have in the spread of this virus is that, alas, a minority of people have not been following the guidance in the way they might have done. What we are trying to do now is to get everybody to focus on the rules and the guidance, to enforce it strictly and to get the R down.