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 ensure that (a) public health workers and (b) people employed to clean buildings have adequate (i) equipment, (i) resources and (iii) health protection to respond to an outbreak of covid-19.

Guidance for public health workers and primary responders was published by Public Health England (PHE) on 25 February 2020. It sets out how to identify potential cases as soon as possible, how to prevent potential transmission of infection to other patients and staff and how to isolate the patient.

The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wn-cov-guidance-for-primary-care/wn-cov-interim-guidance-for-primary-care#environmental-cleaning-following-a-possible-case

Guidance for employers and businesses, including cleaning offices and public spaces where there are suspected or confirmed cases of COVID 19 was published by PHE on 25 February 2020.

The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/guidance-for-employers-and-businesses-on-covid-19

The National Health Service remains prepared to respond to high consequence infectious diseases, including the response to the current outbreak of COVID-19. The NHS has tried and tested procedures to response to infectious disease outbreaks many of which are used each year for seasonal flu. The NHS will continue to follow the public health advice from Public Health England and the Chief Medical Officer to ensure the protection of NHS staff, patients and the public. It is the Government’s priority that the NHS has appropriate equipment, resources and health protection to respond to COVID-19 and we are working closely with the NHS England and the devolved administrations to ensure this.