TEST OF FREEDOM
Brits who test positive for Covid may get three-month ‘freedom pass’ after quarantining for two weeks
A POSITIVE Covid test could soon mean a three-month “freedom pass” for patients after quarantining for two weeks.
Government advisor Prof Sir John Bell said they would be protected for at least 90 days so should be able to do what they want.
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He told the Commons Science Committee the policy would lead to people queuing for tests, rather than avoiding them.
The University of Oxford expert said it would “reopen society” and get people back on trains, in cinemas and to football matches.
The rapid pregnancy-style tests could also spare contacts of infected patients from isolating.
He suggested they are tested every couple of days and allowed to live as normal if they are found to be virus-free.
He said: “We are living in a world where we need to reopen society back up again and we need a structure to do that.
“And at the moment we don’t have that structure because the whole philosophy has ‘let’s beat them up with a stick’ rather than 'let’s give them a carrot’.”
Studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the tests were being published today, with the results expected to be “very impressive”.
People given the jab should also be free to return to social events, Sir John added.
Earlier this week, he admitted that "life could return to normal by spring" after Pfizer announced its Covid jab was 90 per cent effective.
NHS Test and Trace chair Baroness Harding said work is being carried out on allowing people to “do more things” if they had either natural or vaccine-acquired immunity.
That could mean allowing the NHS Covid-19 app to record whether someone has had a vaccine, she told the committee.
It comes after the US pharmaceutical giant revealed its "breakthrough" findings from its jab's mass clinical trial.
Data on Oxford and AstraZeneca's jab is just weeks away, with Sir Bell saying he expects two or three jabs to be available by the new year.
Matt Hancock said the UK's medicines regulator could approve the Pfizer or Oxford vaccines within days of a licence application being submitted due to rolling analysis of the data.
ON STANDBY
The Health Secretary told the Commons the focus was on delivering the jabs if they pass safety tests and are approved by regulators, with a further vaccine possibly coming next summer.
He said the military and NHS staff are on standby to roll out a Covid-19 vaccine across the UK from the start of December and will work "seven days a week", with GPs, new vaccination centres and pharmacists all playing a role.
Pop-up vaccination clinics are also expected to be used in some areas.
Experts hope that the first phase of vaccination of priority groups could prevent the vast majority of deaths from Covid-19.
But there are many hurdles to overcome before the "vast task" of vaccination could begin, Mr Hancock warned.
This includes getting regulatory approval of the new Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and assessment of its safety data.
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Once it gets the green light, the elderly and health and care staff will be first in line, though most other people will not get a jab until 2021.
Asked whether a vaccine could be available by Christmas, Mr Hancock said that was "absolutely a possibility", adding that vaccination clinics would be open on bank holidays and weekends.
The UK Government has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine - enough for about a third of the UK population.
It expects 10 million of these doses to arrive in the UK before the end of this year, with people given two doses, 21 days apart.
Mr Hancock said Oxford's vaccine was easier to deploy than Pfizer's, which needs to be kept at a temperature of minus 70C.
Pfizer's jab is also being manufactured in Belgium, he said, but a lot of work had been carried out to deploy vaccines as soon as they become available.
"We'll be among the first countries in the world to be able to start to do this," he said.
Who will be eligible for first Covid vaccine doses in UK?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has examined data on who suffers the worst outcomes from coronavirus and who is at highest risk of death.
Its interim guidance says the order of priority should be:
- Older adults in a care home and care home workers
- All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers, though they may move up the list
- Anyone 75 and over
- People aged 70 and over
- All those aged 65 and over
- High-risk adults under 65
- Moderate-risk adults under 65
- All those aged 60 and over
- All those 55 and over
- All those aged 50 and over
- The rest of the population, with priority yet to be determined.
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Earlier, Mr Hancock said experts needed to see Pfizer's full safety data and he would not approve a vaccine until it had undergone all its safety checks.
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The Health Secretary said that once a vaccine becomes available, it will be delivered through care homes, GPs and pharmacists, as well as "go-to" vaccination centres set up in venues such as sports halls.
There are currently more than 200 coronavirus vaccine candidates being tested around the world, 40 of which are currently undergoing clinical trials.
Pfizer vaccine goes into production in Germany after proving to be over 90% effective against coronavirus
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