Covid-19 Response
Rob Butler Excerpts(4 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Matt Hancock
I am happy to ensure that my team contacts the hon. Gentleman’s local authority, not least to explain that home testing is only one of the avenues available. In fact, much more testing in care homes is done through the mobile testing units, with the mobile unit going to the care home, or by the satellite units, from which a whole batch is taken to the care home, than through the home-testing channel, which is designed for sending an individual test or a small number of tests to an individual house.
Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con) [V]
An unheralded aspect of the comfort that has been brought to patients in the coronavirus crisis has come from hospital radio stations, such as the one at Stoke Mandeville. Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking the volunteers who have provided the only company available to covid patients when they have not been allowed to have visitors? Will he do all he can to support hospital radio stations in the months and years ahead?
Matt Hancock
My hon. Friend should be proud to represent Stoke Mandeville hospital and Stoke Mandeville hospital radio. He is right: hospital radio is always important, but at times like this, when visitors have not been able to go into hospitals, it is even more important. I am pleased that he raised it.
Covid-19
Rob Butler Excerpts(4 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con)
Given that the new advice today is that people should remain at home for up to 14 days if they have a high temperature or a continuous cough, I wonder if my right hon. Friend can clarify for constituents what actually constitutes a continuous cough—is it half an hour or half a day?
Matt Hancock
It is a cough that does not go away. It is not an irregular cough. I cannot give any more detail on the specific advice than that. It is a continuous cough; that is the best way to describe it.
Coronavirus
Rob Butler Excerpts(4 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Matt Hancock
The advice around school trips is to follow the Foreign Office travel advice—so, as of this weekend, not to take a school trip to north Italy, and otherwise to follow the travel advice.
Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con)
As a former journalist, I know the temptations of a dramatic headline, but does my right hon. Friend agree that in this case there is an onus on the media to report responsibly and not engage in scaremongering?
Matt Hancock
I strongly agree. I would say that largely the media have been responsible, but there have been a couple of exceptions. I hope that the media play their part in this national effort in reporting the facts and what the Government are thinking of doing, especially with the transparency that we are providing, but do so responsibly and thoughtfully as to the consequences of the way that this virus is portrayed.