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 effect of the lifting of covid-19 restrictions on 19 July 2021 on people (a) with a weakened immune system, (b) with blood cancer and (c) who are medically unable to take the covid-19 vaccines.

While no specific assessment has been made, a recent study from Public Health England looked at more than one million people in at-risk groups, which found that people who are immunosuppressed are significantly better protected from symptomatic infection following the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Studies are also underway looking at which groups are less protected through vaccination, which may include groups with weakened immune systems and those with cancers of the blood. The findings will improve our knowledge of the levels of risk. We also recognise that there is a very small group of people who cannot receive the Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.