Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of administering covid-19 vaccines 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Nottingham's Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been piloting a 24 hours a day, seven days a week vaccination service since 20 January. Data from the Birmingham site is awaited. NHS England will consider the findings from both pilots before deciding on next steps.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will prioritise teachers and school staff for the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are following the advice from independent experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on which groups of people to prioritise for COVID-19 vaccines.
The JCVI advised the immediate priority should be to prevent deaths and protect health and care staff, with old age deemed the single biggest factor determining mortality.
The Government will set out plans for phase two of the vaccination programme, based on further advice from the JCVI. Phase two may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will prioritise supermarket workers for the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level. For the first phase, the JCVI has advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.
If supermarket workers are captured in phase one due to their age, or clinical risk factors they will be prioritised. However the Government, as advised by the JCVI, are not considering vaccinating supermarket workers as a phase one priority at this stage. Prioritisation decisions for next phase delivery are subject to of the surveillance and monitoring data and information from phase one, as well as further input from independent scientific experts such as the JCVI. Phase two may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that referrals to children and young people's mental health services are maintained during the 2021 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Children and young people’s mental health services will continue to remain open over the winter, ensuring children, young people and parents can access appropriate support whether face to face, the telephone or via digital means. We encourage parents and carers worried about their child’s mental health to speak with their general practitioner and to continue referring to their local children and young people’s mental health service.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will prioritise police officers for the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), advised that the priority for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. The Government will set out plans for phase two of the vaccination programme in due course, based on further advice from the JCVI. Phase two of the roll-out may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services. This could include first responders, the military, those involved in the justice system, teachers, transport workers, and public servants essential to the pandemic response.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the availability of community spaces for use as places for people to receive covid-19 vaccinations.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are grateful for the offers from businesses up and down the country, including supermarkets and sporting arenas, to use their venues as vaccination centres. NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to identify partners and work with those whose facilities have been identified as suitable. NHS England and NHS Improvement are ensuring that all offers are appropriately considered, alongside local leaders, including from local authorities, to understand potential partnerships that build on the existing network.
We have many partnerships already in place. Seven large scale vaccination centres opened on 11 January, a further ten opened on 18 January and over 30 opened on 25 January. The centres offer an alternative to general practice and hospital services and can each deliver thousands of vaccinations every week. The initial sites were chosen from those ready to vaccinate large numbers of people quickly to give a geographical spread covering as many people as possible.
Currently, in England, 96% of the population is within 10 miles of a vaccine service and by the end of January, everyone will live within 10 miles of a vaccination service. In a small number of highly rural areas, the vaccination centre will be a mobile unit. Regularly updated data on the locations of hospital hubs and local vaccination services is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/hospital-hubs-and-local-vaccination-services/
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of taking hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Therapeutics Taskforce is continuing to monitor any new, high quality evidence on COVID-19 therapeutics and has been following recent findings on hydroxychloroquine.
In June 2020, the Government-funded RECOVERY trial concluded that there is no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. For other patient cohorts, there is limited evidence at this stage to suggest hydroxychloroquine is effective in treating COVID-19 infection. The Therapeutics Taskforce is closely monitoring the large number of active trials that are yet to produce results and will assess any new evidence once this is available. The Department and its arm’s length bodies are prepared to act rapidly should any trial readouts prove positive at sufficient scale and significance.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Government's criteria is for lifting the national lockdown covid-19 restrictions introduced on 5 January 2021; and whether that criteria will be applied more stringently compared with previous lockdowns.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
When making decisions on any COVID-19 restrictions the Government assesses a wide range of data. If our understanding of the virus does not change dramatically, deployment of the vaccine continues to be successful and pressures on hospitals decreases then we hope to be able to start lifting restrictions.
The Government therefore keeps the restriction measures under continual review and will make changes as and when the data and science supports it.