Updates

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus has called on the prime minister to set out a specific timeline and remit for a public inquiry into the pandemic, after he committed to holding one within the current parliamentary session.

The government has been accused of being “incredibly short-sighted” for confirming plans to reopen international travel, despite concerns about passengers mixing in airport queues and a sharp rise in cases of the Indian variant.

• Premier League official warns “economics” of commercial entertainment industry will be destroyed unless capacity can be increased

• Member of the SAGE subcommittee Professor Stephen Reicher warns vaccine passports “generate heat, controversy and division.”

• Baroness Karren Brady calls on government to address practical challenges, adding that Covid passports are “no silver bullet”

• Government urged to maintain restrictions on overseas holidays and provide financial support to travel industry, to reduce risk of new Covid variants fuelling a third wave.
  
  
• Cross-party group of MPs demands urgent measures to reduce overcrowding at airports that have become “breeding grounds” for coronavirus.
  
  
• MPs say international standards needed to spot fake Covid test certificates, warning “the UK’s biosecurity must not rely on border staff spotting a spelling error.”

• MPs warned airport queues are “breeding grounds” for coronavirus
• 100 fake Covid certificates spotted by border staff each day, but many more believed to be falling through the cracks
• Experts warn cases of Indian variant could be ten to twenty times higher than those detected so far

A representative of UK border staff has warned MPs that there is “little to no” evidence on how well people are adhering to quarantine rules, in an evidence session held today by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus.

• Cross-party MPs’ group on Covid publishes biggest review to date of UK response to pandemic - with 71 key findings and 44 recommendations to government described as ‘more important than ever’
• Report claims government is ‘gambling with UK’s future’ by relaxing restrictions over Christmas and returning ‘to a tier system we know has not worked before’
• Findings identify that Test and Trace system in England has failed, with government prioritising arbitrary testing targets over co-ordinated testing strategy
• MPs urge government to adopt Covid-Secure UK Exit Strategy to suppress virus and catch new cases at UK entry points even during vaccine roll out

The APPG on Coronavirus recommends that the UK Government publicly commits to a Zero-Covid strategy in England.

To reduce the risk of a second wave in England and the UK ahead of - or coinciding with - winter 2020, the APPG on Coronavirus recommends that the UK Government aims to reduce the number of new cases seen in England over a seven day rolling average to no more than one new case per million population per day in each region of England.

- ‘Devastating‘ impact on residents’ mental health described at weekly all-party group on coronavirus
- Third evidence session streamed live on social media focused on impact of pandemic on social care settings
- Residents ‘losing the will to live’ charity head warns MPs
- Today’s full session here: https://tinyurl.com/y4q3uaw7

- ‘Long-Covid’ and bereaved family witnesses give evidence to cross-party rapid inquiry
- Support networks needed for people living with long-Covid and those who have lost loved ones, inquiry told
- Inquiry chair Layla Moran MP: ‘unacceptable that bereaved families met with wall of indifference from Number 10’