Health Services: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th May 2020) - View Source

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 help prevent shortages of (a) tests for covid-19 and (b) personal protective equipment for healthcare workers in the event of a second wave of covid-19 infections.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 9th June 2020

The safety of healthcare staff remains paramount during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government is taking action to ensure the availability of testing for COVID-19 and personal protective equipment (PPE) to meet both current and future demand. National Health Service staff and care home residents and workers will continue to be prioritised as we increase testing capacity across the country towards 200,000 tests a day. We have contracted with over 100 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the United Kingdom requires. Over 1.5 billion items of PPE have been delivered across the health and social care system within England with tens of millions more items distributed in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

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