Robin Walker: ...positive for COVID-19 than other working adults. This was the first time that the analysis showed those working in education as more likely to test positive and was likely linked to the previously higher Delta case rates in children during the autumn term. The ONS also analysed infection rates by occupation from 1 September 2020 to 7 January 2021 based on their COVID-19 infection survey....
..., letting fresh air in, getting tested and self-isolating if positive, and, as I say, thinking about wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed settings. Omicron tested us, just as alpha and delta did before, but let us remember some of what we have achieved. We were the first nation in the world to administer a vaccine. We were the fastest in Europe to roll it out, because, outside...
Boris Johnson: ..., letting fresh air in, getting tested and self-isolating if positive, and, as I say, thinking about wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed settings. Omicron tested us, just as alpha and delta did before, but let us remember some of what we have achieved. We were the first nation in the world to administer a vaccine. We were the fastest in Europe to roll it out, because, outside...
Sajid Javid: ...of those at highest risk of hospitalisation and death who test positive for the virus. We do not anticipate a reduction in effectiveness of antivirals against the Omicron variant compared to Delta. On 31 December 2021, PF-07321332+ritonavir was granted a conditional marketing authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and a temporary Regulation 174...
Aaron Bell: ...further, I would join my colleagues in the Lobby on the next occasion. The other case is with omicron. Just before Christmas, we had these models that basically assumed that omicron was as severe as delta. We already had some evidence from South Africa that it was not, and since then we have discovered that it was even better than we thought. That feeds into what my hon. Friend was saying...
Russell George: ...about them last Tuesday, and then, two days later, the First Minister announced the rolling back of some of the restrictions. We know, as well, that hospitalisation rates are nearly a third of the delta variant this time last year, and death rates stood at one nineteenth, compared to the same period of time. So, this is why I ask the question about the overreaction and your words in this...
...not serve anybody well, because we need to continue to apply judgment. To use omicron as an example, it was a new variant but we quickly found out that it does not behave in exactly the same way as delta behaves; therefore, trigger points that were designed for delta or that were later designed for omicron might not be appropriate for the variant that comes along next. We have to retain a...
Preet Kaur Gill: ...experience that viruses evolve and mutate. Our country’s heroic efforts in the fight against covid have been seriously set back not once, but twice, with the emergence of the more transmissible delta and omicron variants. Neither of those variants originated in the UK, but once they arrived here they quickly swept the country. That is why it is so important that our fight against covid...
Maggie Throup: ...not infectious when the test is taken and for a short time afterwards. Evidence suggests that vaccination reduces the likelihood of infection or transmission by a small degree in the context of the Delta variant, which continues to circulate. Early evidence suggests that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection after two doses is significantly lower against infection by the...
Nicola Sturgeon: ...that that would be the case and said that we were focusing, at that point, on getting the NHS back to normal and back on track. Ten months ago—if my memory serves me correctly—we had not had the delta variant, nor, of course, had we had the omicron variant. This pandemic has dealt us two significant additional blows since that time, 10 months ago. I accept that that means that what we...
Miriam Cates: ...evidence is available, the benefits and risks of vaccinating children may have changed. What assessment has been made of the risk of hospitalisation of healthy children due to omicron compared with delta? Evidence is emerging that vaccination has minimal impact on omicron transmission, so what reassessment have the Government made of the potential future impact of child vaccinations on...
David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of DELTA-EE’s whitepaper, published on 26 October 2021, on the potential for reducing the cost of installed heat pumps.
Robin Walker: ...Care and UKHSA as well as local authorities and Directors of Public Health to inform our planning and response. The Omicron variant identified in South Africa has a clear growth advantage over Delta (the previous dominant variant) and is now predominant in all regions of England. Initial data suggests Omicron evades some immune protection from vaccines and prior infection and is more...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...from the response I had from one cinema, saying: 'We've never had it so good.' It was really interesting; that was the difference. I don't know if that's still the case, but certainly, at the time, delta was the dominant variant, and certainly, that's the position at the moment.
Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to update the NHS Covid App to allow differentiation between positive cases from the delta and omicron covid-19 variants.
Ben Bradshaw: ...assessment he has made of the implications for South Africa's status as a covid-19 red list country of data and genetic sequencing from that country showing the relative prevalence of the Beta and Delta variants of covid-19.
Lord Bilimoria: ...coming to the end of their fourth wave. Are we learning the lessons from South Africa, where there are three-day hospital stays for omicron versus stays of between seven and eight days for beta and delta? There is far less use of ventilators and ICUs. Are the Government aware of the report of Professor Ravi Gupta of Cambridge, as well as a report from Hong Kong, showing that omicron is not...
Amanda Milling: ...is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. Whilst early estimates suggest vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection with Omicron is significantly lower than with Delta, the UK Health Security Agency have highlighted that, as we saw with previous variants, the effectiveness against severe disease with Omicron (protecting both individuals and health systems)...
Boris Johnson: ...a good chance of getting through this difficult wave and getting back to something like normality as fast as possible. It is important that omicron seems to provide some sort of immunity against delta, for instance, and that may be a positive augury for the future.
Maggie Throup: ...limited waning in vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation and death more than 20 weeks post-vaccination with Vaxzevria (previously AstraZeneca) or Comirnaty (previously Pfizer) with the Delta variant. Early data suggest vaccine effectiveness is lower against the Omicron variant. However, high levels of protection against symptomatic disease were seen shortly after a booster dose....