Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-12-30
Topic: Health
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): Today marks a great stride forward in our plan to get us out of this pandemic and to return to normal life. Our strategy throughout has been to suppress the virus until a vaccine can make us safe. Suppressing the virus has got a whole lot harder because of the new variant, and we must take more action today, but the vaccine is the route out of the crisis. The approval this morning of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is another world first for Britain and it is the single biggest stride that we have been able to take since this pandemic began It is almost exactly a year since we first heard about what we now know as covid-19 circulating in Wuhan in China. Within weeks, the scientists at Porton Down had sequenced the viral genome. Scientists at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute received the genetic code for the new virus, and like the great British codebreakers before them, they set to work at lightning speed. We took the decision to back them from the start with funding and access to the NHS for clinical trials. Partnered with AstraZeneca, they have done a brilliant job to develop and manufacture a safe and effective vaccine at speed I am sure the whole House will join me in congratulating everyone involved in this huge British success story. Not only is it a triumph of science and ingenuity in cracking a modern-day Enigma code, but in truth it is a victory for all, because the Oxford vaccine is affordable, it can be stored at normal fridge temperatures, and it offers hope not just for this country but for the whole world. Like so much else in the pandemic response, there has been a big team effort, and although this is a great British success, it is also the British way. We are at our best when we collaborate with people from around the whole world, and this is another example. The vaccines programme has shown Britain as a life sciences superpower, and the Brexit deal that this House has just passed, with a very significant majority, will help us to strengthen that yet further. I thank the National Institute for Health Research, the UK Vaccines Network, the Vaccines Taskforce, AstraZeneca of course, and Oxford University, all the volunteers who stepped up for science and took part in the trials, as well as everyone else involved in making this happen From the beginning, we focused on the vaccine as a way out of this pandemic, and now it is a reality. We need to vaccinate as quickly as supply allows—following the necessary safety checks, of course—and the NHS stands ready to accelerate deployment at scale from Monday 4 January. We have a total of 100 million doses on order, which combined with the Pfizer vaccine is enough to vaccinate every adult in the UK with both doses. We will vaccinate according to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation priority, but today’s news means that everyone who wants one can get a vaccine. We already have 530,000 doses available to the UK from Monday, with millions due from AstraZeneca by the beginning of February The clinical advice is that the Oxford vaccine is best deployed as two doses up to 12 weeks apart. The great news is that people get protection after the first dose. This means we can increase the speed at which we vaccinate people for the first 12 weeks before we return to deliver the second doses for longer term protection. It brings forward the day on which we can lift the restrictions that no one in this House wants to see apply any longer than is absolutely necessary, but we must act to suppress the virus now, not least because the new variant makes the period between now and then even more difficult Although we have the good news of the vaccine today, we have to take some difficult decisions. The NHS is under very significant pressure. Right now, more than 21,000 people are in hospital with coronavirus, and we can see the impact that this is having. The threat to life from the virus is real, and the pressures on the NHS are real too. I want to put on the record my thanks to all those working in the NHS, in particular those—including our chief medical officer—who have been working selflessly on the wards over Christmas. They deserve our thanks, our gratitude and our support. We owe it to them to fulfil our responsibility to keep the virus under control Sharply rising cases and the hospitalisations that follow demonstrate the need to act where the virus is spreading. Yesterday alone, 53,135 new cases were registered, the majority of which are believed to be the new variant. Unfortunately, the new variant is now spreading across most of England, and cases are doubling fast. It is therefore necessary to apply tier 4 measures to a wider area, including the remaining parts of the south-east, as well as large parts of the midlands, the north-west, the north-east and the south-west. I have laid a comprehensive list in the Library of the House and published it on gov.uk. Even in most areas not moving into tier 4, cases are rising, and it is therefore necessary to apply tier 3 measures more broadly too, including in Liverpool and North Yorkshire. The rest of Yorkshire remains in tier 3. These changes will take effect from one minute past midnight tomorrow morning The new variant means that three quarters of the population will now be in tier 4 and almost all the country will be in tiers 3 and 4. I know that tier 3 and 4 measures place a significant burden on people and especially on businesses affected, but I am afraid that it is absolutely necessary because of the number of cases that we have seen. Where we are still able to give places greater freedoms, we will continue to do so Today is a day of mixed emotions—the joy that we have in the vaccine, giving us a route out of this pandemic; the pride that Britain is the first country in the world once again to approve this British vaccine; the sorrow at the deaths and the suffering that the virus has caused; and the determination that we must all stick at it during the difficult winter weeks ahead. We end 2020 still with great challenges but also with great hope and confidence that in 2021, we have a brighter future ahead. I commend this statement to the House.