Covid-19 Update

Philippa Whitford Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I share my right hon. Friend’s desire and the strategy of keeping this virus supressed while we get the vaccine rolled out as fast as possible. One of the other good pieces of news from this morning’s announcement is that we can roll this vaccine out faster because we only need to give the second dose after 12 weeks; that means that we can get the first dose of the vaccine into more people. The data shows that that gives that immunity, so we can get through the protection of the nation faster than we previously could have done.

The points that my right hon. Friend raises about education are of course important. The Education Secretary will set out in a statement shortly the details of how we will manage the very difficult balance between needing to keep children in education as much as possible and ensuring that we do not add upward pressure on the R number and spread the virus any further. I commend to him the Education Secretary’s statement.

[Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) (SNP) [V]]

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on vaccinations for all, I absolutely welcome the authorisation of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Storage in normal fridges will make it much easier to deliver here, and particularly so in low and middle-income countries, which would have struggled to maintain the cold chain at -70°, as required for the Pfizer vaccine.

Delivering the vaccine will still be a herculean task for all four UK health services, and they will struggle if they are also dealing with surging covid cases. Hospitals in London and the south-east are already reporting shortages of critical care beds and even oxygen, so there is an urgent need to get the new variant under control. Does the Secretary of State recognise that, when dealing with a spreading infection, getting ahead of it is critical? Taking action only once cases in an area are soaring is simply too late to bring it under control. All three devolved nations are already under level 4 restrictions to try to prevent the new variant from getting a grip and getting out of control. Given the greater levels of the new variant in England—as the Secretary of State just stated, cases are rising everywhere—does he not think it is time to put the whole of England under tightened tier 4 restrictions?

[Matt Hancock]

I have just announced the need to move a significant proportion of England into tier 4 restrictions, and I welcome the implicit support for that measure. Where it is possible to keep some of the freedoms that we all cherish, we should do so, and that is the basis for our tiered approach.

I of course welcome the hon. Lady’s support for the roll-out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which will happen right across the UK from Monday. It has been a pleasure working with Jeane Freeman, the SNP Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health in Holyrood, to ensure that this vaccine, which has been bought, developed and supported effectively by UK science right across the country, can be deployed properly to everybody in the whole of the UK on a fair and equitable basis according to their clinical need. I look forward to working very hard to make sure that happens.