Newspaper column 16 December 2021 - New Covid Measures and the Booster Programme

They say that a week is a long time in politics, and this past week has also shown that this is also the case in our fight against COVID-19.

As I write this, on Tuesday 14 December, in Parliament we will, this evening, be voting on new COVID-19 regulations, which were formalised yesterday evening, and announced by our Prime Minister on Sunday night.

This was in response to the continued and rapid spread of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. On Sunday, the UK reported 1,239 additional confirmed cases of Omicron - the highest daily rise and nearly double the previous high recorded on Saturday. As of Monday, the total number of cases of the variant stood at 3,137 in the UK.

On Monday, Sajid Javid, the Health and Social Care Secretary told us that the Omicron variant now represented 20% of cases in England - and was expected to become the dominant variant in London within 48 hours.

The measures we are voting on today (Tuesday) ’Plan B’, are:

·         The new rules on face masks which came into force last week. Under these restrictions, face coverings have become compulsory in most indoor settings, except for pubs and restaurants.

·         The introduction of a Covid pass which would ensure that someone can enter a large venue, if they can prove they are fully vaccinated or have a negative lateral flow test. This is not the same as a vaccine passport, as you do not need to prove you are vaccinated in order to attend events.

·         A measure allowing fully-vaccinated people who have been exposed to a positive Covid case to avoid self-isolation if they take daily lateral flow tests, and receive a negative result.

These measures contain very limited restrictions compared to measures in force across Europe and in particular, the final measure described above, actually provides less restrictions than we have had previously, in allowing people who take daily lateral flow tests with negative results to avoid isolation and get on with their day to day lives – this has to be welcomed.

On balance I will be supporting these measures, although I am disappointed that they need to be considered. We will review and vote again in the New Year and hopefully the situation will be different. It has taken me many days to decide what to. I have spoken to many constituents and the feeling is genuinely mixed, but the majority feel we are not out of this yet.

I don’t want restrictions to go on and on and there has to be an end point. As much as I wanted us to be there, we are not quite there yet.

Our response to the Omicron variant has to be led by our vaccination programme. The Prime Minister and NHS England have launched an urgent national Omicron appeal for the public to Get Boosted Now, all adults will now be offered a booster jab by the New Year, bringing the target forward by one month.

The NHS will be given everything it needs to get jabs in arms as the UK responds to the Omicron variant, which will include:

·         New vaccination sites set up across the country, including mobile pop-up sites, which I am pushing for additional capacity locally in Truro and Falmouth

·         Increasing opening times for vaccination sites, to 7 days a week with more appointments early in the morning, in the evening and at weekends

·         50 military planning experts will help coordinate the national effort by supporting the NHS with logistics of the rollout

·         Reprioritising the NHS workforce to deliver as many jabs as possible

·         A national call for thousands more NHS volunteers

Cornwall has a duty to do what it can to protect Treliske Hospital from becoming overwhelmed. They are doing a magnificent job. On Monday the senior leadership met with Health Minister Ed Argar to discuss what more the Government can do to support them.

The discussion centred around technical operational ideas, already being used successfully in other parts of the country and the Team at RCHT are now connected with the right colleagues in Government and around the country to help introduce some of these to improve things for us here in Cornwall.

I urge all eligible people to get their boosters through the gov.uk website as soon as possible, so we can all do our bit in beating the virus, support our NHS, and hopefully enjoy Christmas!