Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people in receipt of pension credit will receive support for transport costs when travelling to and from their covid-19 vaccination venue.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Those in receipt of pension credit are entitled to a bus pass for free travel and 99% of people now live within 10 miles of a vaccination centre and are accessible via bus transport links.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to centres administering the covid-19 vaccine on contacting people in priority groups one and two who have so far not received a covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The National Health Service has now offered the COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in the top four priority cohorts. Any health and care staff who have not so far accepted but would now like to do so have been asked to contact their employer who is responsible for arranging their vaccination. Others in the initial priority groups one to four can arrange a vaccination through the national booking system by calling 119 or at the following link:
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure that vaccination centres work their way through the priority list in the correct order and vaccinate only groups 3 and 4 when as many as possible from groups 1 and 2 have been vaccinated.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In order of priority, most United Kingdom residents will be contacted by their general practitioner (GP) to book their vaccine via an online or telephone system. Those in the initial priority groups can also arrange their vaccination appointment by calling 119 or through the national booking system at the following link:
http://www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination
Additionally, the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) is used as the national register of COVID-19 vaccinations. At the point that someone receives their COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccinating team will record the information on the NIMS system and a patient’s GP record.
The top four priority groups – people aged 70 years old and over, care home residents and staff, health and care staff and clinically extremely vulnerable patients – have now all been offered the opportunity to be vaccinated.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has been directly informed of issues with covid-19 vaccine supply in rural areas.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department has not been directly informed of issues with COVID-19 vaccine supply in rural areas.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of giving priority vaccines to adults who are cared for at home and their carers alongside adults resident in a care home and care workers.
Answered by Jo Churchill
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 have 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 a person is cared for at home and falls under the criteria for prioritisation in phase one of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, they will be vaccinated according to their priority group; this includes those considered clinically extremely vulnerable and those considered to be ‘adults at risk’.
Those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill should also be offered vaccination in priority group six.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether angling will be included in the proposed three tier covid-19 restrictions list.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government understands the importance of physical exercise and spending time outdoors.
Under the current restrictions people can go fishing alone or with no more than five others, in public outdoor spaces. People should always follow social distancing guidelines when encountering others. Outdoor angling events can also take place, if they are managed by a licenced individual, in line with Government guidance.
We are seeing COVID-19 cases rise at a rapid rate across the country and, it is vital everyone plays their part by following the measures in place. As we have shown, we are prepared to take action decisively when it is necessary to control the virus, and the Government will, as always, be led by the science.