Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's plans for living with covid-19, what plans he has to reduce the mortality rate of those dying with covid-19.

The best defence against COVID-19 infection and the risk of mortality is vaccination. As of 10 April 2022, 85.5% of the population in England aged 12 years old and over had received two doses of vaccine and 72.3% of those aged over 18 years old had received a third primary dose or booster vaccination.

On 21 February 2022, the Government accepted advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on offering a further dose to some individuals in a spring COVID-19 vaccination programme. The primary aim of the programme is to reduce the risk of severe disease and therefore mortality among those deemed most at-risk. A further dose is being offered to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults and individuals aged 12 years old and over who are immunosuppressed.

For those who are ineligible for the vaccine or who have been vaccinated but do not develop sufficient immunity, antiviral and other treatments are available. The Government has secured 4.98 million patient courses of oral antiviral treatments to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant in the United Kingdom. The most recent data from the Office for National Statistics indicates that mortality rates due to COVID-19 in England decreased to 55.3 deaths per 100,000 people in February 2022 from 79.3 in January 2022.