Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of the reduction of covid-19 vaccine efficacy over time, what steps the Government plans to take in the medium-term to protect people from covid-19 and its variants.

We have secured early access to 453.5 million vaccines doses through supply agreements with six vaccine developers and procured a further 4.98 million courses of antiviral treatments for the National Health Service. The highest risk patients can access molnupiravir, an antiviral treatment, as well as monoclonal antibody treatments from COVID Medicines Delivery Units. In addition, oral antiviral treatments are available through the PANORAMIC national study, run by the University of Oxford. The study is open to clinically eligible individuals in the United Kingdom. The Government will set out further plans on managing the virus in due course.