Latest updates: health secretary questioned by MPs; Covid now accounts for more than 20% of deaths in England and Wales; Christmas statement held up
- ‘Test to release’ scheme will cut England travel quarantine to five days
- England Covid system to be based on data released within days
- Vaccine results bring ending Covid a step closer, says Oxford scientist
- Global coronavirus updates – live
12.24pm GMT
Here is the full quote from Matt Hancock, the health secretary, when he told the committee earlier that after the pandemic was over he wanted to use the UK’s new testing capacity to end the British ‘working when ill’ culture. (See 11.46am.)
Britain had built a “global-scale diagnostics capability”, he said. He went on:
Afterwards we must use it, not just for coronavirus but everything.
I want to have a change in the British way of doing things where ‘if in doubt, get a test’ doesn’t just refer to coronavirus but refers to any illness that you might have.
12.17pm GMT
Q: Are you confident that death certificates mentioning coronavirus are an accurate measure of the impact of the disease? I have heard anecdotal evidence that doctors are including coronavirus on death certificates on a precautionary basis.
Hancock says that is a fair question. But he says the chief medical officer would say the best measure of the impact of coronavirus on mortality would be the all-cause excess mortality figures.
Continue reading…Latest updates: health secretary questioned by MPs; Covid now accounts for more than 20% of deaths in England and Wales; Christmas statement held up‘Test to release’ scheme will cut England travel quarantine to five daysEngland Covid system to be based on data released within daysVaccine results bring ending Covid a step closer, says Oxford scientistGlobal coronavirus updates – live 12.24pm GMTHere is the full quote from Matt Hancock, the health secretary, when he told the committee earlier that after the pandemic was over he wanted to use the UK’s new testing capacity to end the British ‘working when ill’ culture. (See 11.46am.)Britain had built a “global-scale diagnostics capability”, he said. He went on:Afterwards we must use it, not just for coronavirus but everything.I want to have a change in the British way of doing things where ‘if in doubt, get a test’ doesn’t just refer to coronavirus but refers to any illness that you might have. 12.17pm GMTQ: Are you confident that death certificates mentioning coronavirus are an accurate measure of the impact of the disease? I have heard anecdotal evidence that doctors are including coronavirus on death certificates on a precautionary basis.Hancock says that is a fair question. But he says the chief medical officer would say the best measure of the impact of coronavirus on mortality would be the all-cause excess mortality figures. Continue reading…