Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of travel-to-work areas that cross local authority boundaries when setting levels of COVID-19 restrictions for local areas.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Work travel patterns factored into the decision making. It is important to apply restrictions to broad geographical areas where there are significant interconnected economic and social networks. This approach enables the same restrictions to apply where people are likely to work and socialise.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish detailed guidance on the type of cough that should prompt a person to book a COVID-19 test.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The three main symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature, a loss or change to sense of smell or taste and a new continuous cough. This means coughing for more than an hour or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is (1) the total number, and (2) the percentage, of NHS COVID-19 tests that have recorded (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) inconclusive, results for England; and how do such figures compare with (i) Northern Ireland, (ii) Wales, and (iii) Scotland.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is (1) the total number, and (2) the percentage, of NHS COVID-19 tests that have recorded (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) inconclusive, results for each region of England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is (1) the total number, and (2) the percentage, of NHS COVID-19 tests that have recorded (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) inconclusive, results for each local authority area in England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide a breakdown (1) by health condition or treatment, and (2) by age group, of any estimate of the number of immunocompromised people who will not be able to benefit from a COVID-19 vaccine.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department has worked closely at Ministerial and official level with our partners in the devolved administrations since the beginning of the outbreak, discussing a broad range of issues, in order to formulate an effective response.
Both primary immunodeficiency, the result of an inherited genetic defect, and secondary immunodeficiency, the result of disease or treatment and which may be temporary, have a variety of causes. Incidence, diagnosis or overall collective prevalence data that capture all possible types of immune deficiency, are not routinely collected or recorded centrally.
The Green Book lists the immunocompromised as part of the clinical risk groups over the age of 18 years old who should receive COVID-19 immunisation, as recommended by the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), but notes that some immunocompromised patients may have a suboptimal immunological response to the vaccine. The JCVI has considered vaccination of household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. However, at this time there is no data on the size of the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on transmission. Once enough evidence becomes available, the JCVI will consider options for a cocooning strategy for immunosuppressed individuals, including whether any specific vaccine is preferred for this population.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which health conditions or treatments they categorised as resulting in a patient being immunocompromised when making their estimate of the total number of immunocompromised people who will not be able to benefit from a COVID-19 vaccine.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department has worked closely at Ministerial and official level with our partners in the devolved administrations since the beginning of the outbreak, discussing a broad range of issues, in order to formulate an effective response.
Both primary immunodeficiency, the result of an inherited genetic defect, and secondary immunodeficiency, the result of disease or treatment and which may be temporary, have a variety of causes. Incidence, diagnosis or overall collective prevalence data that capture all possible types of immune deficiency, are not routinely collected or recorded centrally.
The Green Book lists the immunocompromised as part of the clinical risk groups over the age of 18 years old who should receive COVID-19 immunisation, as recommended by the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), but notes that some immunocompromised patients may have a suboptimal immunological response to the vaccine. The JCVI has considered vaccination of household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. However, at this time there is no data on the size of the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on transmission. Once enough evidence becomes available, the JCVI will consider options for a cocooning strategy for immunosuppressed individuals, including whether any specific vaccine is preferred for this population.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of immunocompromised people in England who will not be able to benefit from a COVID-19 vaccine; and what discussions they have had with the (1) Scottish, (2) Welsh, and (3) Northern Irish, Governments about the numbers of those people in those countries.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department has worked closely at Ministerial and official level with our partners in the devolved administrations since the beginning of the outbreak, discussing a broad range of issues, in order to formulate an effective response.
Both primary immunodeficiency, the result of an inherited genetic defect, and secondary immunodeficiency, the result of disease or treatment and which may be temporary, have a variety of causes. Incidence, diagnosis or overall collective prevalence data that capture all possible types of immune deficiency, are not routinely collected or recorded centrally.
The Green Book lists the immunocompromised as part of the clinical risk groups over the age of 18 years old who should receive COVID-19 immunisation, as recommended by the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), but notes that some immunocompromised patients may have a suboptimal immunological response to the vaccine. The JCVI has considered vaccination of household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. However, at this time there is no data on the size of the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on transmission. Once enough evidence becomes available, the JCVI will consider options for a cocooning strategy for immunosuppressed individuals, including whether any specific vaccine is preferred for this population.