Covid-19 Update Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Cabinet Office

Covid-19 Update

Munira Wilson Excerpts
Monday 12th October 2020

(4 years ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

As my hon. Friend knows, in level 2 areas and indeed, a fortiori, in level 3 areas, there are restrictions on household contact that are designed to bring down that transmission. You should not meet other households indoors in either a domestic or a hospitality setting.

Munira Wilson Portrait Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
- Hansard - -

The latest technical glitch in the Prime Minister’s so-called world-beating test and trace system, which has been dubbed a “data enrichment” process, has meant that many positive cases among students have automatically been attributed to their home address, instead of to their university address. That has affected about a quarter of new cases in Richmond upon Thames in my constituency, and it has been replicated in Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Hertfordshire, Essex and elsewhere. How can quick and effective local tracing take place if cases are being reported to the wrong place, and how might that affect decisions about which tier areas are placed into?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The hon. Member makes an important point but, with respect to her, we are aware of that phenomenon—data showing where students, or anybody, are registered with their GP, rather than where the transmission is taking place—so we obviously aim off for that.