... but he vows: This will be last lockdown
MATT Hancock has promised there will not be another lockdown – but he warned that people may need booster jabs every six months.
The Health Secretary told MPs this was the last time draconian restrictions would be imposed on the nation.
His comments provide a boost after a warning from chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty on Monday that virus restrictions may still be needed next winter.
However, Mr Hancock conceded we will be living with Covid-19 for years to come.
Asked by MPs if he believed the lockdown imposed this week would be the last, Mr Hancock said: ‘I do, yes.’ But he told the health and social care committee: ‘There is absolutely no doubt that vaccines and testing will still be a feature next year. We will need both the surveillance testing to be able to understand where the virus is and we will need testing for people who have symptoms, in the same way that you get tested for all sorts of other things.’
Mr Hancock added: ‘I anticipate we will probably need to revaccinate because we don’t know the longevity of the protection from these vaccines.
‘We don’t know how frequently it will be, but it might need to be every six months, it might need to be every year.’
He also warned that the vaccine may not reduce hospital admissions that quickly, hinting that lockdown might be extended beyond March to help the NHS.
Mr Hancock said: ‘Hospitalisation levels I would also expect to fall, but ironically not as quickly as deaths in the first instance.
‘ The reason is that people who are slightly younger spend longer in hospital, often because they survive when somebody who is very old and frail might not survive for as long.’
He said it was ‘impossible’ to put a percentage on the absolute risk of the NHS being overwhelmed in the next two weeks, adding: ‘I don’t mean that just as a cop-out.’
Mr Hancock said that as pressure on the NHS grows, ‘it is more stretched in delivering the services that people need’ and pointed to the cancelling of routine elective procedures in the second peak. Asked if he had faith that the health service in London would be able to cope, he said: ‘Well, yes, I’m sure that the NHS is going to do everything that it possibly can to ensure that everybody gets the care that they need.’
The Health Secretary said critical care capacity had been extended over the summer in the capital and reiterated that the Nightingale hospital was on stand-by.
He said: ‘We also need the people and, hence, bringing people back into the NHS.
‘And also, ultimately, when hospitals are busy and full then clinicians become more stretched, and that’s why we should be all so grateful for the service they’re giving.’
Asked about cancelled operations, Mr Hancock said: ‘Obviously we try to minimise that... It is an indication of the degree of pressure that London hospitals are under.’