Public Health

Chris Grayling Excerpts
Tuesday 14th December 2021

(2 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

I thank my hon. Friend for sharing that with the House. I think it is important to hear that support from South African experts too.

Chris Grayling Portrait Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con)
- Hansard - -

We are all, of course, concerned to hear that plan C measures are already being discussed, and I should be grateful if my right hon. Friend could lay that to rest. However, I want to raise the question of hospitalisations. There is a difference between people who have been hospitalised with omicron and those who have hospitalised from omicron. Will my right hon. Friend tell us what he knows about those cases? How many people have been admitted to hospital for other reasons, and how many have arrived in hospital because they are seriously ill with omicron?

Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

What I can tell my right hon. Friend is that there are approximately 6,000 people in English hospitals who have tested positive for covid, and of those—I have shared information like this with the House before, because I was determined to obtain it when I first became Health Secretary—approximately 80% are there because of covid symptoms, while about a fifth are there for other reasons, but were tested for covid and happened to have it. I hope that that is helpful to my right hon. Friend.