Coronavirus: Disease Control

(asked on 2nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the Government's strategy to reduce the R rate in the event that (a) hospital admissions for covid-19 and (b) new confirmed covid-19 cases indicate that the R rate is above one and rising in (i) each region and (ii) all regions; how that strategy will be disseminated in the event of significant regional difference; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 18th June 2020

Transparency, including on the evidence informing the views of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), is vital in helping to maintain the public’s trust and grow our collective understanding of the disease, while also helping to explain how scientific advice to the Government is being formed. The Government is working to publish evidence documents and studies, which have formed the basis of SAGE’s discussions and advice to Ministers, regularly, and will publish more evidence in the coming weeks.

SAGE does not currently publish the R value on a regional level. SAGE publishes an updated estimate of the United Kingdom-wide R range on a weekly basis. Because outbreaks in hospitals and the community are interlinked, SAGE and its subgroups do not calculate the R rate in these settings separately.

We have published guidance on COVID-19 infection prevention and control which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control

The Government has also used Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) including lockdowns, school closure, business closure, shielding and restricting gatherings to reduce infection rates and ensure that the National Health Service is not overwhelmed. If, after lifting restrictions, there is a concerning rise in the infection rate, then the Government will consider the reimpositions of restrictions, including locally targeted restrictions.

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