Covid-19 Update

Debate between Matt Hancock and Fay Jones

Tuesday 2nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

After we have completed the vaccination of the clinically extremely vulnerable, there are still many millions of people here who are at risk of dying from this dreadful disease. We will absolutely lean in to the international effort. Thanks to the fact that we chose not to join the EU scheme, we are of course far further ahead than we would have been otherwise, as the hon. Lady knows. We will play that vital role internationally, but she will also understand why it is so important that we fulfil our first duty to keep people in the UK safe.

[Fay Jones (Brecon and Radnorshire) (Con) [V]]

It has been a privilege to be one of the volunteers at my local vaccination centre in Builth Wells and I commend Powys Teaching Health Board and all the vaccination staff for their efforts. Residents in Ystradgynlais, the largest town in my constituency, currently have to travel more than 50 miles to get their jabs. As a result, the local GP is working almost around the clock to ensure that people who cannot travel can get their vaccine. As well as thanking everyone involved in delivering the vaccine in Brecon and Radnorshire, will my right hon. Friend confirm that the roll-out is an agile system and that the Government will not allow the challenge of rural areas to impede our progress?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. Across England, we have set the goal of having a vaccination centre within 10 miles of where anybody lives. It is harder in more rural parts, such as my hon. Friend’s constituency, of course. We are absolutely willing to support the Welsh NHS in delivery locally. In fact, the British armed services are involved in support of the roll-out across Wales, as they are in England. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss what more we can do to ensure that people can get the vaccination as easily and closely as possible in her sparse and very beautiful constituency.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Matt Hancock and Fay Jones

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Member asks a very sensitive and reasonable question. Of course it is right that we should follow the clinical guidance in terms of the order of priority, and that does include those who are clinically extremely vulnerable to this disease. On the timescales, I am afraid that the answer is the same to him as to my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Laura Farris), which is that we do not know because it depends on the speed at which the manufacturers can produce the vaccine.

[Fay Jones (Brecon and Radnorshire) (Con)]

Last week I was absolutely delighted to see the vaccine rolling out across Brecon and Radnorshire. I am hugely grateful to the Vaccine Taskforce and the thousands of volunteers who have bravely stepped forward to take part in the trials, including—I must declare an interest—my dad. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the vaccine has undergone months of rigorous trials, and that work continues to ensure that other vaccines can be rolled out as quickly, but most importantly as safely, as possible?

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Matt Hancock and Fay Jones

Monday 29th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

To be clear, children have a very low risk of suffering from covid, but we have been looking at the proportion of children who have tested positive and therefore may be transmitting the disease. Thankfully, the disease poses a very low risk to any individual child in terms of their becoming ill or worse, but the challenge is that it still transmits through children. That is why we have taken the decision that we have on schools in Leicester. Of course, there are many reasons and potential reasons why the outbreak has occurred in the way it has in Leicester. We are still getting to the bottom of those, but I undertake to ensure that directors of public health in other areas understand those reasons. For instance, we are doing work specifically on food processing factories, which seem to have a higher rate of infection around the world, including in America, Germany and also in north Wales. Of course, there is a challenge in the community to ensure that we understand properly the origins and the spread of the outbreak in Leicester and then look at similar cities where the case rate is thankfully much lower, but ensure that we learn the lessons for similar cities, precisely as the shadow Secretary of State said.

[Fay Jones (Brecon and Radnorshire) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend has mentioned the outbreaks in Wales. Does he agree that the Welsh and UK Governments working together would be beneficial for everyone, particularly on test, track and protect, but especially for my constituents in Brecon and Radnorshire, who share a border with England?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. I know the Welsh borders extremely well. My hon. Friend is right to raise the need to work cross-border. We work as closely as we can, supporting the Welsh Government, for example, with their testing capacity and with test and trace. We are working on better data sharing between the two Governments, not least because of the importance for those who travel across the border.