Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the increased health risk from covid-19 for young people over 18 with Down’s syndrome compared with the risk for those under 18.

The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers recently reviewed the latest data to examine whether there was a need to add further conditions to the definition of clinically extremely vulnerable. This analysis showed that the vast majority of those adults over 18 with Down’s syndrome were at the very highest risk of death from COVID-19 and this group were added to the clinically extremely vulnerable list.

As our knowledge of COVID-19 has grown, we now know that very few children are at highest risk of severe illness due to the virus, even those with other health conditions. Using the information on COVID-19 and outcomes for people who have had it, we have not found evidence that children who have Down’s syndrome are at higher risk than other children. General practitioners and hospital specialists still have discretion to add patients to the list based on careful, clinical assessments of each individual’s needs. Clinical guidance has been issued to support these decisions.