Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which hospital laboratories in the West Midlands have been commissioned by NHS Test and Trace to process covid-19 samples.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Processing of COVID-19 samples has taken place in laboratories belonging to the following National Health Service trusts in the West Midlands:
- Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust;
- Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust;
- Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust;
- The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust;
- The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust;
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust;
- University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust;
- Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust; and
- Wye Valley NHS Trust.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has undertaken to enable the early detection of superspreaders of covid-19.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have partnered to fund a comprehensive programme of research on COVID-19 to understand, prevent, treat and manage COVID-19. As part of this, there is no specific research commissioned on early detection of super spreaders of COVID-19.
The NIHR and UKRI are, however, funding relevant work looking at the transmission and epidemiology of the disease such as the Virus Watch study which is looking at household transmission; and the TraCK study looking at transmission between children, and between children and adults.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) advice and (b) evidence informed his decision to propose a 10 pm curfew on hospitality venues.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies highlighted that alcohol consumption may increase risk of non-compliance with social distancing and that gatherings in hospitality are higher risk of transmission. This was highlighted also in Public Health England’s Weekly Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) surveillance report which stated 13% of positive COVID-19 cases reported eating out in the time before symptom onset, when there is a high risk of transmission. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which university and college laboratories in the West Midlands have been commissioned by NHS Test and Trace to process covid-19 samples.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the West Midlands, the University of Birmingham has joined the effort in increasing capacity to over 500,000 tests a day.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of supplies of reagents for covid-19 testing; and what steps he is taking to secure supplies of those reagents.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Thanks to our world-leading scientists and clinicians, we have now been able to fast-track a new biological reagent to help the United Kingdom and countries across the globe carry out even more tests and develop ever more accurate ways of diagnosing the virus.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much laboratory testing capacity in industry he has secured for covid-19 testing.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Testing capacity is published on GOV.UK but is not broken down by sector. On 4 November 2020, testing capacity was 521,016.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to ensure adequate refrigeration capacity for a vaccination programme to tackle covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
National preparations for storage of COVID-19 vaccines at the required temperatures are being made by Public Health England to support a national COVID-19 vaccination programme. This includes both the central storage of vaccines and distribution capability across the United Kingdom to the National Health Service.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to ensure that appropriate freezer and refrigeration capacity is in place to maintain the required cold-chain for COVID-19 vaccination deployment across England. NHS England and NHS Improvement are using the latest available COVID-19 vaccination characteristic and supply information to model the required capacity and working with suppliers to secure additional freezer and fridge as needed. NHS England and NHS Improvement have taken early steps, and are continuing to work to secure these resources, recognising the likely global competing demand for items.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's updated estimate is of the number of daily new covid-19 cases during the peak week in March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The following table shows the estimated number of new COVID-19 infections each day between 20 March and 26 March 2020, which is considered to be the peak of the epidemic in England.
Estimated number of COVID-19 cases between 20 March and 26 March 2020 in England, shown in thousands
Date | Upper Confidence Interval | Median | Lower Confidence Interval |
20 March 2020 | 292 | 219 | 180 |
21 March 2020 | 361 | 272 | 223 |
22 March 2020 | 443 | 335 | 275 |
23 March 2020 | 542 | 412 | 338 |
24 March 2020 | 399 | 305 | 252 |
25 March 2020 | 205 | 153 | 124 |
26 March 2020 | 233 | 176 | 144 |
Notes:
https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/tackling-covid-19/nowcasting-and-forecasting-of-covid-19/
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of acute respiratory infections which resulted in at least one positive test for covid-19 there were in the most recent week for which figures are available; and what proportion of those cases occurred in (a) care homes, (b) the workplace, (c) education settings and (d) pubs and food outlets.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Public Health England publishes the number of acute respiratory infections reported each week in the national COVID-19 surveillance reports.
729 new incidents of acute respiratory infection were reported in week 37 (Week commencing 7 August 2020).
Of these, 313 incidents were from care homes where 228 had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; 110 incidents were from workplace settings where 92 had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; 193 incidents were from educational settings where 110 had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; 34 incidents were from food outlet/restaurant settings where 25 had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; four incidents were from prisons where three had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; 18 incidents were from hospitals where 13 had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2; and 57 incidents were from other settings where 39 had at least one linked case that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
The most recent weekly COVID-19 surveillance report can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 17 June 2020 from the hon. Member for Warley on his constituent Sally Taylor.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department replied to the Rt hon. Member’s letter on 23 September 2020.