Tag: Matt Hancock

Below is the text of the statement made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 17 June 2020.

I am grateful for the chance to update the House on the urgent matter of coronavirus.

Yesterday’s treatment breakthrough shows that British science is among the best in the world. As a nation, we can be incredibly proud of our scientists. The UK is home to the best clinical trials, the most advanced immunology research, and the most promising vaccine development work of any country. We have backed the science from the start, and I am sure the whole House welcomes the life-saving breakthrough that was announced yesterday. Today, I will briefly update the House on all three aspects of that national scientific effort.

First, on clinical trials, our recovery programme, which looks at the effects of existing treatments in real-world hospital settings, is the largest of its kind. As of yesterday, 11,547 NHS patients had been recruited to the programme, which is operating across 176 sites in all four nations. In Oxford University’s dexamethasone trial, over 2,000 NHS covid patients were given a course of the drug—a commonly used steroid—over 10 days. For patients who were ill enough to require oxygen, the risk of dying fell by a fifth, and for the most seriously ill patients on mechanical ventilators, the risk of dying fell by over a third.

This is an important moment in the fight against this virus, and the first time that anyone in the world has clinically proven that a drug can improve the survival chances for the most seriously ill coronavirus patients. In February we began the trial, supported by £25 million of Government funding, and in March we began recruiting patients, and started the process of building a stockpile in case the trial was successful. As of today, we have 240,000 doses in stock, and on order. That means that treatment is immediately available, and already in use on the NHS. I am incredibly proud that this discovery has happened right here in Britain, through a collaboration between the Government, the NHS, and some of our top scientists. It is not by any means a cure, but it is the best news we have had.

Throughout this crisis, our actions have been guided by the science, and that is what good science looks like: randomised control trials; rigorous and painstaking research; moving at pace, yet getting it right. The result is that we now have objective proof—not anecdotes, but proof—that this drug saves lives, and that knowledge will benefit many thousands of people all around the world.

Seven other drugs are currently being trialled as part of the recovery process, and a further nine drugs are in live clinical trials as part of the ACCORD programme, which is looking at early-stage treatments. We look forward to seeing the results of those trials. I thank everyone involved in that process, and put on the record my thanks to our deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, who led the work in Government, ​as well as to NHS clinicians, the scientific teams, and the participants in the trial who took the drug before they knew that it worked.

Our immunology research, again, is world leading. Last month I announced a new antibody testing programme to help us understand the immunological response to the disease, and whether someone acquires resistance to coronavirus once they have had it and recovered. I am part of that programme, and as of yesterday, 592,204 people have had an NHS antibody test. The nature of immunity research means that it takes time, and we must wait to see whether someone with antibodies gets reinfected. However, with every test, we improve our picture of where the virus has been, and we grow the evidence to discover whether people who have had the disease and have antibodies are at lower risk of getting or transmitting the virus again.

Crucially, that work will help to inform how we deploy a vaccine, and it is moving at pace. Earlier this week Imperial College began its first phase of human clinical trials, and 300 participants will receive doses of the vaccine. Should they develop a promising response, Imperial will move to a large phase-3 trial later this year. Yesterday, AstraZeneca signed a deal for the manufacture of the Oxford vaccine, AZD-1222, which is the world’s most advanced vaccine under development. Its progress, while never certain, is promising.

None of that happened by accident. It happened because the British Government, scientists, and the NHS put in place a large-scale, programmatic, comprehensive, well-funded, systematic, rigorous, science-led system of research and innovation. We have been working on it since the moment we first heard of coronavirus. There is more to do in this national effort, but that is how we will win the battle. We will leave no stone unturned as we search for the tools to hunt down, control, and ultimately defeat this dreadful disease.

Mr Speaker

May I just say to the Secretary of State that he has gone way over the allocated time? It would have been easier for him to make a statement rather than having to have an urgent question. In future, perhaps he could come forward with a statement if he needs the extra time, and I will certainly grant that and support him in doing so. Some extra time for Jonathan Ashworth as well, and for Philippa Whitford.

Below is the text of the interview between Andrew Marr and Matt Hancock, broadcast on 7 June 2020.

Andrew Marr:

You’ll have heard Professor Edmunds there saying very, very clearly he understood it was difficult and it wasn’t easy but he wished that we had locked earlier. Do you agree with that?

Matt Hancock:

No.

Andrew Marr:

No?

Matt Hancock:

I think we took the right decisions at the right time and there’s a broad range on SAGE of scientific opinion and we followed – we were guided by the science which means guided by the balance of that opinion, as expressed to ministers through the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Adviser. That’s the right way for it to have been done.

Andrew Marr:

I’m not saying it was an easy decision but he is absolutely clear that it cost lives not locking earlier.

Matt Hancock:

Well, there are others who equally make different scientific arguments and the way that this is done –

Andrew Marr:

Is there anyone who thinks it didn’t cost lives?

Matt Hancock:

Well yes. If you listen to the balance of opinion on SAGE, a hundred people on SAGE approximately, what we do as ministers is we take the scientific advice, channelled through the Chief Medical Officer on the medical side, the Chief Scientific Adviser on the broader science and then we have to – as Professor Edmund said, we have to make the balanced judgements based on that advice. And that’s the way it works. So you’ll always, in a body of a hundred people you’ll always find differing voices. It’s totally reasonable.

Andrew Marr:

And yet absolutely clear you are sure that locking when you did and not earlier did not cost lives?

Matt Hancock:

I’m sure, and as I keep looking back on that period, I’m sure that taking into account everything we knew at that moment we made the – my view is – that we made the right decisions at the right time. But the other thing I’d say, Andrew, is that I spend most of my time trying to rid this country, rid all of us of this ghastly virus and really most of my time and energy I devote to looking forwards as well of course of trying to learn lessons from what happened in the past.

Andrew Marr:

The reason I’m hanging over that issue about when the country locked up is because right now we’re also wondering is this the right time to unlock? And can I ask you in the same spirit, looking at exactly where the R number is, just hovering around one, whether you’re absolutely sure we’re not going a little fast.

Matt Hancock:

Well we’ve got to be very cautious and we’ve got to have a safety first approach. And I thought that on that Professor Edmunds expressed it exactly as I would, which is that with the R below one, the SAGE estimate taking into account all of the models, not just the one that’s been in the news a lot in the last 24 hours, but all ten of them, is that the R is between .7 and .9. That means that the number of new infections continues to fall. It’s around 5,000, 5 and a half thousand a day on the best estimates, but it’s always hard to estimate that.

Andrew Marr:

I was going to say this is in a sense art not science because these are old figures you’re getting, there’s a time lag and so forth. To an extent you’re flying blind on all of this and on the Cambridge figures the R number is actually above one in the North West of England.

Matt Hancock:

Well, it’s actually science, it’s not art. It is science on which we base these decisions and science is necessarily looking at uncertainty. Now you say it’s flying blind. That’s no longer true. Because the Office for National Statistics Survey and a separate survey by Ipsos, Mori and Imperial are both surveys of actual test results in the community right now, which is different from some of the models that are essentially model predictions.

Andrew Marr:

Okay. So we know we’re going ahead into a period where more shops are going to reopen, where places of worship are going to reopen and so on. What would have to happen now for the government to put the brakes on that?

Matt Hancock:

Well we don’t want R to go above one. We’ve been absolutely clear about that and the estimate is that R is below one and as Professor Edmunds said, the overall estimate taking into account everything we know is that R is below one in each region. I know that in the North West –

Andrew Marr:

What about an increase in the number of infections?

Matt Hancock:

Well, if R goes above one then that leads to an increase to the number of infections. That is by definition, that’s the logic of R. So the reason R is important –

Andrew Marr:

At that point you stop the unlocking?

Matt Hancock:

Well the reason R is important is that if R is below one then the number of infections continues to fall and that’s what we’ve seen over recent weeks.

Andrew Marr:

I’m just saying you get direct data in about the number of infections as well and if that goes up do you reverse the unlocking?

Matt Hancock:

Well we get survey data about the number of infections. We get direct data about the number of positive test results. What I want is everybody who has the infection to come forward with a test. But addressing the substance of your question, absolutely we are open to, if we need to, to taking local action in the first instance to crack down on a local outbreak, as we’ve already done and we’re prepared to do more, and we’ve always been open to having to reverse some of the measures. But we don’t want to do that and that’s why we’re taking a cautious approach and a safety first approach which means for instance from Monday being able to – Monday next – being able to reopen private prayer. I think is incredibly important for many, many people who have been feeling a lack of that spiritual ability to pray in their place of worship. Again, that’s got to be done very carefully and safely and we’re learning as a society how to be more Covid secure.

Andrew Marr:

But we be absolutely clear if there’s an increase in infections the government will re-impose a national lockdown?

Matt Hancock:

We’ve always said that. We’ve always said if necessary and you’ve got to look at the overall approach. This isn’t the number moving about from day to day or week to week, this is the overall strategic approach where the strategy has been clear from the start and the number of those new infections has been coming down and down and down and down.

Andrew Marr:

There’s been a lot of talk about local lockdowns and like many people I don’t completely understand this. When you say a local lockdown does that means a small area around a care home where there might be a problem? Does it mean a town? Does it mean an entire region or city of Britain? What does it mean?

Matt Hancock:

Well preferably the former.

Andrew Marr:

So it could be very small, very localised?

Matt Hancock:

Absolutely. Take Weston-super-Mare. In Weston-super-Mare the action that we took when we saw a spike in the number of infections was to close the hospital to new admissions. We then put in place testing of asymptomatic people in the community around the hospital and those connected to the hospital and we found that it hadn’t led to community spread because of the action that had been taken.

Andrew Marr:

So you just had to close down Weston-super-Mare.

Matt Hancock:

Correct.

Andrew Marr:

We saw people on the beach so it was just around that area.

Matt Hancock:

Correct. Now of course we looked at that and what we might have to do, but we instead simply by stopping the hospital having new people coming in and by very, very significant infection control procedures in the hospital and with the support of the brilliant local Director of Public Health, Leader of the Council, Public Health England at a regional level and of course the NHS we managed to deal with that local outbreak.

Andrew Marr:

It worked.

Matt Hancock:

It worked. And that is a model of how we can do this elsewhere.

Andrew Marr:

So let’s imagine – I won’t name one – but let’s imagine a big city with a lot of people living in it and you see a spike in the R rate, you see a spike in the number of infections in that city. Is it plausible that you then actually try and cut that city off from the rest of the country? Refuse to allow people to travel from wherever it is to someone else in the UK? Do you actually impose that kind of lockdown on part of the UK or is that actually practically impossible?

Matt Hancock:

Well, we do have the legal powers to do that but that is not our starting point and the starting point is actually much more localised than that, to try find a much more localised area within a part of a city. And remember the virus spreads by human contact and therefore if you can get this early enough and spot it early enough, then you will get quite a localised area of the outbreak, because human contact tends to be local by its nature. And so actually the focus is to get as early as possible, as local as possible and things like tackling an outbreak in one hospital or in one very small area is what we’re really aiming at here.

Andrew Marr:

You mentioned track and trace just now. The system’s been up and running I think for ten days now. How many people have been contacted?

Matt Hancock:

Well sadly, I’m not going to tell you that and the reason is because I want to ensure that the statistics authorities are very happy with how we’re collecting and publishing this data before I say anything on the record because we want to get this absolutely right.

Andrew Marr:

16,500 people have tested positive in the last period. Is that the kind of numbers that are actually going to be contacted, because if not, if it’s much lower than that, then the system is not working.

Matt Hancock:

Oh, thousands are being contacted but I won’t go into more details than thousands unfortunately until the statistics authorities are happy with exactly how these things are measured, but we will be publishing full details and a fully range of statistics once that’s all signed off by the statisticians.

Andrew Marr:

The app. You’re wearing your NHS badge, what’s happened to the NHS app? It was supposed to be here three weeks ago and no sign of it.

Matt Hancock:

Well we learnt, one of the things we learnt on the pilot on the Isle of Wight which has been very successful and on the Isle of Wight they’ve done a great job of – through the pilot. One of the things we learnt is to get in place the human based system first, that’s what we’re doing and then the technology can add to that.

Andrew Marr:

But we were told by you and many others that the app was going to be essential. Are you saying it’s not essential and it’s not going to come in, or what?

Matt Hancock:

I’m saying that it will help, it’s an advantage and it will come in but we want to make sure we get this system embedded first with the human contact tracers. After all, the key thing about test and trace isn’t just that you trace the virus, it’s that the people who you find then have to isolate for two weeks and that’s quite a big ask. The evidence is that the overwhelming majority are doing that when the NHS phones them up and asks them to but that’s a very important part of it.

Andrew Marr:

So we’ve talked about tracking, let’s talk about testing specifically. How many people were tested yesterday?

Matt Hancock:

Well, the latest figures we’ve got is for Friday and it was just over 200,000.

Andrew Marr:

200,000 because you were giving us these figures on a daily basis, testing the number of people, and then you stopped.

Matt Hancock:

No, sorry. The number of tests were just over 200,000.

Andrew Marr: Number of people tested I was asking.

Matt Hancock:

Well the number of people tested, we will be bringing that data back. The challenge there is that because we’ve introduced different types of testing, making sure that you ensure that you only count one person once amongst the four pillars is a complicated statistical process. So again that’s with the statisticians to sort.

Andrew Marr:

In short it’s a bit of a muddle at the moment. Sir David Norgrove, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority as you know said:
”The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests at the expense of understanding. It’s not surprising given their inadequacy the data on testing is so widely criticised and often mistrusted. Did that sting?

Matt Hancock:

Well, the thing about it is that it’s not true. There are other ways that you could measure testing to give much higher figures and we chose not to. What we chose – advised by my Permanent Secretary – are the most accurate ways to show the testing that the government is doing, which is the number of tests either directly administered or sent out, because that’s the point at which the government is doing its job. So that’s why we measured it in that way and that’s why I’m so cautious about giving further information before we’ve got this all straightened out with the statistical authorities.

Andrew Marr:

Has everyone living in or working in a care home now been tested?

Matt Hancock:

We have now managed successful to deliver tests to every care home that is eligible both for staff testing and for residents to be tested for every –

Andrew Marr:

So anyone in a care home across Britain watching this programme has been tested or they’re deluded?

Matt Hancock:

Or the tests have been delivered. So the goal we set is that the tests will be delivered by the 6th of June. That was completed yesterday I’m very glad to say, on time and what that means is that of about three quarters of a million people living in just over 9,000 eligible care homes, the tests have been delivered and –

Andrew Marr:

This is the programme, isn’t it, because as David Norgrove said, delivered and tested are two different things. So you can’t actually say they’ve all been tested. Which is what they were promised.

Matt Hancock:

No, they were promised that we would get tests to them.

Andrew Marr:

Okay.

Matt Hancock:

And this is – actually I’m being extremely precise. I have not said that we have tested everybody. What I’ve said is the tests have been delivered. Now the care homes themselves asked us to do it in this way because they say that we were right at the start of this requiring them to send back the tests within a very short space of time. They say actually if you’re running a care home sometimes you may want a couple of days to prepare the residents, to make sure you’re ready. So actually the way that we’re doing it in this way – I’m using my words very precisely – is because the care homes wanted us to do it this way. And I respect that and I think it’s very important to work with the sector.

Andrew Marr:

Now, we talked earlier on about community transmission. You told people not to protest yesterday about Black Lives Matter. They did protest. You’ve seen all of that. What’s your reaction? Do you agree, for instance, with Professor Edmunds, who said there is risk with that?

Matt Hancock:

Yes, I do. I’ve worked all my political life to tackle discrimination and to support diversity. And the problem is that
the virus doesn’t discriminate. And there’s a reason that we have laws in place – temporarily – to say that gatherings of over six people should not happen. And that’s because the virus spreads. And the problem therefore is that – I just wish people – I really hope people make the argument, and I will support them in making that argument. I hope that they will make that case stronger. But please don’t gather in groups of more than six, because in groups of more than six that risks spreading the virus and that risks lives. So it is incredibly important – and think of it this way –

Andrew Marr:

Sorry, are you saying that because of those protests yesterday and they way those people gathered people will die?

Matt Hancock:

The way I’d put it is this: we think that about one in a thousand people has the disease in this country. And so when you
get groups of thousands gathering, of course the likelihood is some of those people will have the disease, and we know that if you come into contact with people that risks spreading the disease. So Professor Edmunds was absolutely right to say it risks a spread, and the risk of the spread of the disease is that it then risks lives. So I bow to nobody in my support for action to make sure there is true equality of opportunity in this country for everybody, no matter their background.

Andrew Marr:

Do you think the police should have been enforcing the law in that case?

Matt Hancock:

Well, I think the police did a fantastic job and I’m very proud of the British police for their professionalism, their restraint in the face of the tiny amount of violence – and I would stress it was a very small amount of violence later on in the day. And I think that we can all be proud that the British police are not like the American police in this way, and I think that that’s a very good thing.

Andrew Marr:

Thinking about diversity in general, when you look at this government, you look at the Cabinet, there’s a very, very stinging, very interesting piece by Sajid Javid in the Sunday Times this morning about inequality and racism in Britain, but there are still no black faces in the Cabinet are there?

Matt Hancock:

Well, hold on, Andrew. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary, are both from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Andrew Marr:

But not black.

Matt Hancock:

Well, until the latest reshuffle Kwasi Kwarteng was sitting around the Cabinet table with me. I think that this is one of the most diverse Cabinets in history, and that’s been a record under Boris Johnson and I think – I welcome that. I think that’s a really good thing. And what really matters is tackling inequality of opportunity amongst all sectors of society.

Andrew Marr:

So Public Health England produced a report, as you know, on why BAME people are more likely to die of this disease. But there were no recommendations in that report and a lot of MPs, mostly opposition MPs, were really, really concerned about that. Surely it’s not enough to say, ‘here’s the problem,’ you have to have some kind of answer to it.

Matt Hancock:

Well, we have been taking action all the way through. We didn’t wait for the report to take action.

Andrew Marr:

As Health Secretary what are you doing to better protect BAME people from this disease?

Matt Hancock:

In the first instance, the occupations that are more frequently taken by people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are also some of those that have the biggest risks of infection. So, for instance –

Andrew Marr:

Cleaners, nurses, doctors.

Matt Hancock:

Absolutely. And – or in fact all staff in hospitals. But the thing is to protect that whole occupation and everybody in it. Also those who are critical on the frontline in public transport, for instance. Bus drivers, taxi drivers. So we’re taking forward the PHE work, we have already – PHE have done the analysis that shows that this is a very significant problem, and Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Equalities, is taking it forward to ask exactly that question why.

How much of it is down to occupation, for instance, how much of it is down to co-morbidities, how much of it is down to housing – because we know that housing inequality has an impact.

Andrew Marr:

In a very balanced response, she also said that the report had gaps and hasn’t gone far enough. ‘There was more that I was hoping to see from this review.’

Matt Hancock:

Well, if it had gone far enough then I wouldn’t have asked her to take the work forward with the prime minister, who obviously cares very deeply about getting this agenda right.

Andrew Marr:

The big picture. We’ve had 40,000 deaths and probably a lot more than that in this country, might be 55, might be 60,000. The prime minister said that he took full responsibility and the government have been doing everything they could in tackling coronavirus, ‘and I am very proud of our record.’ Can I put it to you that being very proud of our record, in terms of the number deaths that we have had in this country, is not right?

Matt Hancock:

Well, I mourn each one of those deaths. And in a way, you know, 40,000 – the number is less important than the fact that each of these is somebody who has died, with a family who will never be the same again. And we have put unprecedented amounts of action into place, right across the board, to deal with the crisis. And we’re fully accountable for that.

Andrew Marr:

You’re working very, very hard, you’re probably putting your life and soul into this but are you really proud?

Matt Hancock:

Well, my team, I’m very proud of the work my team have done. Particularly, you know, starting up of test and trace system from scratch and getting the testing system going. Making sure that we flatten the curve. Protecting the NHS, building those Nightingale hospitals, making sure the NHS wasn’t overrun. So there’s enormous amounts of things that I’m very proud of.

Andrew Marr:

40,000 or more dead?

Matt Hancock:

Well, of course nobody wants to see a pandemic at all.

Andrew Marr:

Matt Hancock, thanks very much indeed for talking to us
today.

Below is the text of the statement made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 2 June 2020.

On 28 May the NHS Test And Trace service was introduced across England. This forms a central part of the Government’s covid-19 recovery strategy to help as many people as possible return to life as close to normal as possible, in a way that is safe and protects our NHS and social care.

The objective of the NHS Test And Trace service is to push down and keep low the rate of reproduction (R) of covid-19 and reduce the total number of infected people by catching cases before they spread the virus. It brings together testing, contact tracing and outbreak management into an end-to-end service.

The roll-out of the NHS Test And Trace service has been made possible by the rapid expansion of testing. The largest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history has been created and now has the capacity to carry out 200,000 tests a day. This includes 50 drive-through sites, more than 100 mobile testing units and three mega laboratories. Everyone in England is now eligible for a test if they have covid-19 symptoms. These symptoms are: a new, continuous cough; or a high temperature; or a loss of, or change in, normal sense of smell or taste.

The NHS Test And Trace service uses a combination of 25,000 dedicated contact tracing staff, local public health experts and an online service to trace the contacts of anyone who tests positive for covid-19. The NHS covid-19 app, which will further extend the speed and reach of contact tracing, will be rolled out nationally in the coming weeks as part of the NHS Test And Trace service.

On 22 May we announced £300 million of new funding for local authorities in England to work with NHS Test And Trace to develop local outbreak control plans. These plans will focus on identifying and containing potential outbreaks in places such as workplaces, housing complexes, care homes and schools, ensuring testing ​capacity is deployed effectively and helping vulnerable people who are self-isolating access essential services in their area.

Anyone who tests positive for coronavirus is contacted by NHS Test and Trace and asked to share information about their recent interactions. This could include household members and people with whom they have been in direct contact or within 2 metres for more than 15 minutes. People identified as having been in close contact with someone who has had a positive test must stay at home for 14 days, even if they do not have symptoms, to stop unknowingly spreading the virus.

Those who need to self-isolate will be informed about local support networks if they need practical, social or emotional support. They will also have access to the same financial support available to those who have to self-isolate because they or another member of their household have symptoms or have tested positive for covid-19. This includes access to statutory sick pay, subject to normal eligibility conditions.

The public will have a key role to play in making this service a success. They will need to report covid-19 symptoms, book tests, help to identify recent close contacts, and self-isolate for at least seven days if they have covid-19, and for 14 days after they were in contact with the person who tested positive for covid-19 if they are identified as a close contact by NHS Test and Trace.

We have put in place a comprehensive media campaign to increase public awareness of the NHS Test and Trace service, what it is, why it is important and what the public need to do. This includes TV, radio, video on demand, posters, digital display and social media.

We are working closely with the devolved Administrations and public health agencies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure an aligned approach to testing and tracing across the United Kingdom where possible.

Below is the text of the statement made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 2 June 2020.

With permission, I would like to make a statement on coronavirus.

Thanks to the collective determination and resolve of the nation, we are winning this battle. We have flattened the curve, we have protected the NHS, and together we have come through the peak. Yesterday, I was able to announce that the level of daily deaths is lower than at any time since lockdown began on 23 March. Today’s Office for National Statistics data show that the level of excess mortality is also lower than at any time since the start of lockdown, falling on a downward trend. The ONS reports 12,288 all-cause deaths in England and Wales in the week ending 22 May. That is down from 14,573 in the previous week. That latest figure is still above the average for this time of year and we must not relent in our work to drive it down, but it is now broadly in line with what we might typically see during the winter. We never forget that each of those deaths represents a family that will never be the same again. This House mourns each one.

We are moving in the right direction, but this crisis is very far from being over and we are now at a particularly sensitive moment in the course of the pandemic. We must proceed carefully and cautiously as we work to restore freedom in this country, taking small steps forward and monitoring the result, being prepared to pause in our progress if that is what public safety requires. So today I would like to update the House on two important aspects of the action we are taking.

First, NHS Test and Trace is now operational. That means we have updated our public health advice. Since the start of the crisis, we have said to people that you must wash your hands, self-isolate if you have symptoms, and follow the social distancing rules. All those remain incredibly important, but there is a new duty—and it is a duty—that we now ask and expect of people. If you have one of these symptoms—that is: a fever; a new, continuous cough; a change in your sense of taste or smell—you must get a test. We have more than enough capacity to provide a test for anyone who needs one and we have more than enough capacity to trace all your contacts. So, to repeat: if you have symptoms get a test. That is how we locate, isolate and control the virus. By the way, I make no apology for this overcapacity. The fact that we have thousands of NHS contact tracers on standby reflects the fact that transmission of the virus is currently low. If we were in a position where we needed to use all that capacity, it would mean that the virus was running at a higher rate—something that no one wants to see.

Secondly, I want to update the House on the work we are doing to understand the unequal and disproportionate way that this disease targets people, including those who are from black or minority ethnic backgrounds. This is very timely work. People are understandably angry about injustices, and as Health Secretary, I feel a deep responsibility, because this pandemic has exposed huge disparities in the health of our nation. It is very clear that some people are significantly more vulnerable to covid-19, and that is something I am determined to understand in full and take action to address.

Today, I can announce that Public Health England has completed work into disparities in the risks and outcomes of covid-19, and we have published its findings. PHE has found the following. First, as we are all aware, age is the biggest risk factor. Among those diagnosed with covid-19, people who are 80 or older are 70 times more likely to die than those under 40. Being male is also a significant risk factor. Working-age men are twice as likely to die as working-age women. Occupation is a risk factor, with professions that involve dealing with the public in an enclosed space, such as taxi driving, at higher risk. Importantly, the data show that people working in hospitals are not more likely to catch or die from covid-19.

Diagnosis rates are higher in deprived or densely populated urban areas, and we know that our great cities have been hardest hit by this virus. This work underlines that being black or from a minority ethnic background is a major risk factor. That racial disparity holds even after accounting for the effects of age, deprivation, region and sex. The PHE ethnicity analysis did not adjust for factors such as comorbidities and obesity, so there is much more work to do to understand the key drivers of these disparities, the relationships between the different risk factors and what we can do to close the gap.

I want to thank Public Health England for this work. I am determined that we continue to develop our understanding and shape our response. I am pleased to announce that my right hon. Friend the Equalities Minister will be leading on this work and taking it forward, working with PHE and others to further understand the impacts. We need everyone to play their part by staying alert, following the social distancing rules, isolating and getting a test if you have symptoms. We must not relax our guard but continue to fight this virus together. That is how we will get through this and keep driving the infection down. I commend this statement to the House.

Below is the text of the speech made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 19 May 2020.

One of the first things we knew about coronavirus as it began its dismal spread across the world was that it reserves its greatest impact for those who are physically weakest, especially the old. In the UK, 89% of all deaths have been of those aged above 65. From the start, we have worked hard to protect those in social care. In early March, we put £3.2 billion into social care—half through the NHS and half through local authorities—and we have repeatedly set out and strengthened guidance for infection control and support.

For anyone who has a loved one living in a care home and for all the residents and staff, I understand what a worrying time this has been. I am glad that we have been able to protect the majority of homes, and we will keep working to strengthen the protective ring that we have cast around all our care homes. As I said in the House yesterday, last week we set out a further £600 million to strengthen infection control, and this comes on top of a substantial programme of support.

First, on testing, from the start we have tested symptomatic residents of care homes, even when testing capacity was much lower, and this has always been a top priority. We are now testing all care home residents and staff in England—those with symptoms and those without—and this is being done according to clinical advice, starting with the most vulnerable, and extending to working-age residents, too.

Secondly, we have strengthened the NHS support available to social care. We are putting in place a named clinical lead for every care home in England and have brought NHS infection-control expertise to the sector.

Thirdly, we are making sure that local authorities play their part. Councils are conducting daily reviews of the situation on the ground in local care homes, so that every care home gets the support that it needs every day.

Fourthly, we are supporting care homes to get the PPE that they need.

Fifthly, we have increased the social care workforce during this crisis and provided more support. Altogether, this is an unprecedented level of support for the social care system. I thank colleagues across social care for their hard work.[Official Report, 20 May 2020, Vol. 676, c. 2MC.]

We have also broken down some of the long-standing barriers, including between health and social care, and we have learned the importance of making sure that money for social care is ring-fenced specifically for social care, as the £600 million agreed last Friday has been. On top of that, we are requiring much better data from social care, because partial data has bedevilled the management of social care for many years and made ​policy making more difficult. Regular information returns are required in return for the latest funding, and we are looking to change the regulations to require data returns from every care provider, so that we can better prepare and support social care.

Our elderly care homes provide for people towards the end of their life. They do an amazing job and deserve the praise that they have received from the public during this crisis. Residents are looked after when they need care the most: their hands are held, their brows are mopped and they are made comfortable. As a collective result of our efforts—especially the efforts of care colleagues throughout the country—62% of care homes have had no reported cases of coronavirus.

The figures released today by the Office for National Statistics show that the number of deaths in care homes has fallen significantly and is down by a third in just the past week, from 2,423 to 1,666. This morning’s statistics confirmed that 27% of coronavirus deaths in England have taken place in care homes, compared with a European average of around half, but whatever the figures say, we will not rest in doing whatever is humanly possible to protect our care homes from this appalling virus, to make sure that residents and care colleagues have the safety and security they deserve.