Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce covid-19 (a) case numbers and (b) hospitalisations.

The Government will continue to build on its existing strategy for tackling the pandemic. This includes the successful roll-out of the vaccination programme, which has substantially weakened the link between cases and hospitalisations and the test, trace and isolate system, which is vital in managing the virus. As set out in ‘COVID-19 Response: Summer 2021’ the Government may need to take further measures to help manage the virus during periods of higher risk, such as winter, but will as far as possible prioritise strengthened guidance and seek to avoid imposing restrictions that have significant economic, social and health costs.