Covid-19: Government Handling and Preparedness Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Yasmin Qureshi
Main Page: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)Department Debates - View all Yasmin Qureshi's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Covid-19: Government Handling and Preparedness
Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts(3 years, 6 months ago)
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Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab) [V]
In February, I called for localised, community-based vaccination centres, and I want to pay tribute to Dr Helen Wall, Bolton’s clinical commissioning group, the NHS and volunteers for the roll-out of the vaccine. Last week, my constituents were wrongly accused of vaccine hesitancy, and then we had a quasi-lockdown that no one knew about and many people’s travel plans were thrown into chaos. My constituents can forgive the Government for that, but I am sure I speak for the country when I say that we cannot forgive the fact that:
“Tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die”.
Those were the chilling words of Dominic Cummings. Will the Secretary of State tell me when the Prime Minister and others will be investigated by the police for alleged corporate manslaughter? Why did we not follow the example of New Zealand, where they managed to control the virus with a minimum number of deaths?
Matt Hancock
What I would say to the people of Bolton is that they have again risen to this challenge. The number of vaccinations happening in Bolton right now is phenomenal—tens of thousands every single day.[Official Report, 7 June 2021, Vol. 696, c. 2MC.] It is heartening to see the queues of people coming forward both for testing and for vaccinations in Bolton. This has not been an easy pandemic anywhere, but it has been especially difficult in Bolton. In particular I want to pay tribute to the leadership of Bolton Council and Councillor David Greenhalgh, who has done such a remarkable job in very difficult circumstances.