Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what step he is taking to ensure that BAME patients who are migrants have access to free medical care on the NHS during the covid-19 outbreak.

Regulations came into force on 29 January 2020 to add Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (now known as COVID-19) to Schedule 1 of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015. This means there can be no charge made to an overseas visitor for the diagnosis, or, if positive, treatment, of COVID-19.

To help ensure that no one is deterred from safely accessing healthcare for COVID-19 this information has been widely communicated to NHS staff and the public and has been translated into 40 languages. This message has been shared with organisations representing vulnerable migrant groups.