Back in the Commons Hancock says the case rate in Cornwall has stayed very low, even though many holidaymakers visited the county during the summer. He pays tribute to people in Cornwall for taking steps to keep people Covid secure.
(@EvanHD)
Search data suggests that on Sept 3rd, we started asking the internet whether “a sore throat is a Covid symptom” in rapidly increasing numbers. Not sure what scale of the phenomenon is, but I suspect a lot of people have colds right now.
Here is the clip of Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, telling the BBC that testing is “actually a government success”.
(@BBCPolitics)
“The testing issue is actually a government success,” says Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg
“I think it’s going as well as could possibly be expected, considering the demand”
Tim Farron (Lib Dem) says there is a “terrifying” backlog for cancer treatment. Hde says, even working at 135% capacity, it would take six months to clear this.
Hancock says he feels very strongly about this. He will look at any ideas proposed to speed this up.
In his response to Hancock earlier, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary asked why the government did not foresee a rise in infections. He added:
When schools reopen and people return to workplaces and social distancing becomes harder infections rise.
So extra demand on the system was inevitable, so why didn’t he use the summer to significantly expand NHS lab capacity and fix contact tracing?
Tim Loughton, a Conservative, says he is getting many reports of children being turned away from school if they have the sniffles. He says testing is not at a record high in his constituency.
Hancock says, when schools go back, children often get a normal cold. That is contributing to the increase in demand.
On the government’s “moonshot” plan, Hancock says there are no plans to carry out 10m tests per day. But the government does want to get testing into the millions.
(This is misleading. Whether or not it is an official target, the 10m tests per day figure was clearly set out in leaked official documents about the project reported by the Guardian.)
Labour’s Stephanie Peacock asks if Hancock will apologise to a constituent in Barnsley who could not get a test.
Hancock says more than 600 people in Barnsley did get a test yesterday. He asks Peacock to provide details of this case.
Stephen Crabb, a Conservative, asks about the rule of six. Wouldn’t it be better to have one rule for the whole of the UK? And can children be exempt from the way the rule works in England?
Hancock says the government is keeping the issue of children under review. But they were included to keep the rule simple.
More from what Matt Hancock has been telling the Commons
Matt Hancock says the testing backlog is less than one day’s testing capacity.
One day’s capacity is 370,000 tests.
Isn’t that actually a rather large backlog?
