Just when you thought Matt Hancock couldn’t get any cheesier, it has been revealed that he has hired a London advertising agency to help with the next stage of his brand-building exercise – the launch of his very own cheese brand, Matt Hancock’s Cheddar.
Mature, tangy and quintessentially British, Hancock’s eponymous dairy brand looks set to capitalise on the MP’s jungle notoriety, although whether the UK consumer is ready for Matt Hancock in their fridge remains to be seen.
Matt hired independent creative agency isobel, to come up with the cheese brand – which features Hancock’s face and the strapline “Cheese for the people”.
When probed about the branding strategy and creative execution, a spokesperson from isobel said that one of Hancock’s primary aims for launching the brand was to ‘normalise politicians’ and make them more ‘relatable’.
“Everyone loves cheese so why not create a cheese brand for the people?”
The cheese, launching nationally today on Saturday April 1st will be supported by a print, social and OOH campaign – also created by isobel.
Exchange of letters spells end of the road for hapless Health Secretary … for now at least
Hancock’s replacement is the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP. The former Chancellor has been appointed as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “I’m incredibly honoured to take up the post of Health and Social Care Secretary, particularly during such an important moment in our recovery from COVID-19. This position comes with a huge responsibility and I will do everything I can to deliver for the people of this great country.
“Thanks to the fantastic efforts of our NHS and social care staff who work tirelessly every day, and our phenomenal vaccination programme, we have made enormous progress in the battle against this dreadful disease. I want our country to get out of this pandemic and that will be my most immediate priority.”
A door-to-door testing blitz is under way this morning in a bid to find and eliminate every case of the South African coronavirus variant in England.
On-the-spot doorstep tests, home testing kits and mobile testing units are being deployed to reach 80,000 people in eight specific neighbourhoods in an urgent effort to stop the spread of the South African strain.
Health Minister Matt Hancock told last night’s Coronavirus media briefing:
Good afternoon and welcome to Downing Street for today’s coronavirus briefing. And I’m joined by Professor Steve Powis, the Medical Director of NHS England. And Dr Susan Hopkins, who is the Chief Medical Advisor to Public Health England and to NHS Test and Trace.
I’ve got quite a lot of news to bring you up to speed on. Right at the start, I wanted to tell you where we are with our vaccine programme.
I’m so proud of the team, who’ve now vaccinated 9.2 million people across the UK, that includes 931,204 vaccinations just this weekend.
And to put that into context – that’s one in every 60 adults in the whole United Kingdom vaccinated in one single weekend. It’s a mammoth effort.
I know how much these jabs mean to people. And I’m so grateful for all the messages that we get, and all the pictures that I’m sent of people being vaccinated.
It fills me with pride that so many people are doing so much to help for this roll out to happen so smoothly and I want to say thanks to you all.
Care homes
Getting vaccinated is an emotional moment for so many people and that’s because it is about protecting those who are most vulnerable to COVID.
We’ve now vaccinated almost 9 in 10 of all over 80s in the UK and now, as of today, we’ve vaccinated over half of all people in their 70s.
And, I’m delighted that I can tell you we’ve visited every eligible care home with older residents in England, and offered vaccinations to all their residents and staff.
This has been an incredible example of health and social care working together, working side-by-side to protect people most in need.
As Professor Martin Green, the Chief Executive of Care England said today, this is a “wonderful achievement and one that is testament to the hard work of care home staff and our colleagues in the NHS and local authorities.”
And, I want to thank every single person who’s helped us to get this far.
Vaccine supply
I also want to let you know some good news on vaccine supply. Today we’ve ordered another 40 million vaccine doses from Valneva.
As we have all along, we’ve invested early and at risk, before we know for sure if it will come good because from the start, we’ve taken a no regrets attitude to backing vaccines. We’ve tried to leave nothing on the table.
If this gets regulatory approval, the Valneva vaccine, like many others, will be made right here in the UK.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is made in Oxford, and Staffordshire, and Wrexham. The Novovax vaccine is being manufactured on Teesside. And if approved, this Valneva vaccine will be manufactured in Livingston, in Scotland.
We didn’t start this pandemic with a large-scale on-shore vaccine manufacturing capability, so we’re building one, all across the United Kingdom.
The vaccine programme just goes to show how important it is to have the UK working as one, together.
International
We now have over 400 million doses of vaccines on order. This is obviously more than the UK population needs. And my attitude has always been we protect every UK citizen as fast as we can. And at the same time, we’re generous around the world.
I want to say this to our international partners. Of course, I’m delighted about how well this is going at home. But I believe fundamentally that the vaccine roll out is a global effort.
One of the many reasons that I’m so happy with the AstraZenenca contract is that it not just that it gives us a strong supply here but because it is the only vaccine being deployed that’s available to the whole world at cost.
And because it’s logistically straightforward, it can be practically deployed in the poorest parts of the world too.
So, we will protect UK supply and we’ll play our part to ensure the whole world can get the jab.
New variants
Another area where we’re helping around the world is in spotting new variants.
Our global leadership in genomic sequencing has helped us to spot new variants here in the UK, and quickly alert the rest of the world. But there are other countries that don’t have the capacity they need.
Last week, we offered our capacity and expertise to other nations through our New Variant Assessment Platform, because a mutation in one part of the world is a threat to people everywhere.
For example, our South African colleagues spotted a new variant through their high quality genomic sequencing and rightly notified the world, as we did with the variant that we discovered here in the UK.
We’ve now identified 105 cases of this variant here. Eleven of those cases don’t appear to have any links to international travel.
There’s currently no evidence to suggest this variant is any more severe, but we need to come down on it hard and we will. We’ve already made sure that all these cases are isolating and that we’ve done enhanced contact tracing of all of their close contacts.
Working with local authorities, we are going door-to-door to test people in the local area. These cases have been identified in the following postcodes:
W7, N17, CR4, WS2, ME15, EN10, GU21, and PR9
If you live in one of these postcodes where we’re sending in enhanced testing, then it’s imperative that you stay at home. And that you get a test, even if you don’t have symptoms.
This is so important so that we can break the chains of transmission of this new variant. And we’ve got to bring this virus to heel.
So there’s lots of good news, but this is a stark reminder that the fight against this virus isn’t over yet.
Every day, we’re protecting more people and getting ourselves one step closer to normal life. But this is no time to let things slip. So let’s, all of us, do what we must to get this virus under control.
Speech by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock at the Downing Street coronavirus briefing, 11 January
Good afternoon and welcome back to Downing Street for today’s coronavirus briefing. I’m joined by Professor Steve Powis, the National Medical Director of NHS England.
Before I turn to our vaccine delivery plan, which we’ve published today, I wanted to go through the latest coronavirus data.
As we know, the new strain of this virus is highly contagious, and it is putting our NHS under very significant pressure.
Yesterday 46,169 positive cases of coronavirus were recorded across the whole of the UK.
As the slide shows, 32,294 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus – that’s across the UK and as you can see that is up sharply, it’s up 22% from this time last week.
The average number of deaths reported each day over the past week is 926.
And our hearts go out to the family and the loved ones of each and every person who has died of coronavirus.
As the Chief Medical Officer said earlier today, we are at the worst point of this pandemic, and you can see that from this slide and from the increase in the number of people in hospital.
So the NHS, more than ever before, needs everybody to be doing something right now and that something is to follow the rules.
Now, I know there’s been speculation about more restrictions. And we don’t rule out taking further action if it’s needed. But it’s your actions now that can make a difference. Stay at home. And please reduce all social contact that is not absolutely strictly necessary.
That’s what’s needed. Act like you have the virus.
And it’s all the more important to do this because the vaccine rollout is now proceeding at pace and we all know that this is the way out of the pandemic.
I am determined, as I have been for almost a year now, to drive this vaccination programme as fast as is safely possible.
I’m determined to ensure every adult in this country has the chance to be vaccinated. And that as many as possible take up that chance to be vaccinated.
Vaccines are important and I care about vaccines because I want our country to get back to normal as fast as possible.
I want us to have that great British summer.
And my team and I are working hard to deliver this as fast as possible, both to save lives and to make people safe and to protect the NHS and reduce the very significant pressures it’s under right now.
Vaccines delivery plan
I wanted to bring you up to speed with the very latest statistics on vaccination.
So far, across the UK we’ve given 2.6 million doses to 2.3 million people.
And we’ve protected more people through vaccinations than all other countries in Europe put together.
It sets out how we will build on this work that’s been done so far, and put in place the biggest vaccination programme in British history.
There are 4 parts to the plan.
The first is supply.
I’ve always believed in British science, and that it can find the solutions to get us out of this.
For a year now we have been working to develop and buy vaccines for everyone in the UK.
Thanks to our investment in Ebola and MERS vaccines several years ago, the Jenner Institute at Oxford University was able to repurpose existing work, and move so fast to develop a successful vaccine.
But our search has been global throughout, so while we’ve backed the scientists who’ve been working on this here at home, we’ve also worked with international partners like Pfizer and BioNTech, to ensure that we were the first country in the world to authorise, and use the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
And of course the Moderna vaccine has now been authorised and is ready to bring on stream.
I want to thank all those involved, but this work is not yet done.
The supply of the vaccine is currently the rate limiting step.
And we will bring forward as much vaccine as becomes available.
And we must ensure that we have the vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities in this country for the future too.
The next part of the plan is prioritisation, this has been much discussed.
The plan sets out how we prioritise the vaccine so that we can protect those at greatest clinical risk. And one simple statistic explains why this is important.
The top 4 priority groups account for 88% of the deaths from COVID.
This stark fact explains why we must prioritise according to clinical need – to save lives – and because that is the fastest route to safely lifting restrictions.
We are on track to deliver on our pledge to offer a first vaccine to everyone in the top 4 cohorts by the 15th of February.
I want to give you an update on progress.
Two-fifths of over 80s have now received their first dose.
Care home residents are of course in the very top priority group.
In the last few days, since the Oxford vaccine was approved for use in primary care on Thursday morning, we have significantly accelerated the care home vaccination rollout.
Almost a quarter of older care home residents have now received their first dose of the vaccine.
We are committed to reaching every care home resident this month.
And I want to see as much of that as possible as soon as possible.
I’m incredibly grateful to everybody working in social care.
Whether in care homes, or domiciliary care, for everything they are doing to keep the people who are the most vulnerable to COVID, to keep them safe right now.
This is not easy, but it is vital. And it is vital too that when the vaccine reaches your care home, everyone, everyone, residents and staff alike steps forward and gets that jab.
Each of these jabs helps save lives. And we’re making this happen as fast as we can.
The plan sets out how we will continue through the clinically prioritised groups, and beyond.
So all adults can be offered a vaccine by the autumn.
The third part of the plan is expanding where you can be vaccinated.
As of Friday, 96% of the population in England lived within 10 miles of a vaccination site and we’re expanding the number of vaccination sites further, right across the whole of the UK, with the devolved NHS responsible for delivery in each of the 3 devolved nations, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This expansion will include community pharmacy and roving vaccination centres, on top of the hospitals, GP practices, and the 7 mass vaccination centres, that we have opened, including the one I visited today at Epsom.
This huge expansion means that by the end of January everyone will live within 10 miles of a vaccination centre, either fixed or roving in England. And this will help us make sure that everyone can get access to the vaccine that’s so important.
The final part of this plan is about the people who will make it happen.
Over the past few months, we have recruited and trained an 80,000 strong vaccination workforce. I am incredibly grateful to all who have stepped forward.
Including people from all parts of the NHS:
retired clinicians
pharmacists
airline cabin crew
the armed services
St John’s Ambulance
The Royal Voluntary Service
And so many volunteers who have come forward for their country.
Thank you for your service.
And I’m very grateful to the many offers of support we’re receiving right now, and for all those who are in training as this vaccination rollout expands.
So that is the vaccine delivery plan. It is an incredibly important piece of work.
But while this crucial work takes place, each and every one of us must keep pushing back against this virus
By following the rules that are in place.
Please do your bit and help keep the NHS strong
While we roll up our sleeves and make this ambitious plan a reality.
So please, stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.
Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will be rolled out across NHS hospitals, care homes and labs from next week.
Both tests will be able to detect COVID-19 and other winter viruses in just 90 minutes
New tests will hugely increase testing capacity ahead of winter, delivering fast results that will help to break chains of transmission quickly
Millions of ground-breaking rapid coronavirus tests will be rolled out to hospitals, care homes and labs across the UK to increase testing capacity ahead of winter. The tests will enable clinicians and NHS Test and Trace to quickly advise on the best course of action to stop the spread of the virus.
Two new tests – both able to detect the virus in just 90 minutes – will be made available to NHS hospitals, care homes and labs. The 2 tests will be able to detect both COVID-19 and other winter viruses such as flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The tests do not require a trained health professional to operate them, meaning they can be rolled out in more non-clinical settings.
This will help to further strengthen the coronavirus response this winter, arming both clinicians and NHS Test and Trace with the ability to distinguish between COVID-19 cases, which have specific self-isolation requirements, and other winter viruses.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “We’re using the most innovative technologies available to tackle coronavirus. Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly.
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as COVID-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others.
“I am hugely grateful for the excellent work done by DnaNudge and Oxford Nanopore to push forward these life-saving innovations in coronavirus testing.”
A new test that uses DNA to detect the virus will be rolled out across NHS hospitals from September, with 5,000 DNA machines, supplied by DnaNudge, to provide 5.8 million tests in the coming months.
Separately, 450,000 90-minute LamPORE swab tests will also be available across adult care setting and laboratories from next week, supplied by Oxford Nanopore.
DNA testing for coronavirus
5,000 DNA ‘Nudgebox’ machines, supplied by DnaNudge, will be rolled out across NHS hospitals in the UK to analyse DNA in nose swabs, providing a positive or negative result for COVID-19 in 90 minutes, at the point of care. The machines will process up to 15 tests on the spot each day without the need for a laboratory.
The DNA COVID-19 test machines are currently operating in 8 London hospitals:
St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington
Charing Cross Hospital
West Middlesex University Hospital
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Royal Hospital Chelsea
Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Maternity Hospital
the Renal Transplant Centre at Hammersmith Hospital
the Tower Hamlets Centre for Mental Health at Mile End Hospital
The machines are located in cancer wards, A&E and maternity wards to protect those most at risk.
The government is signing contracts with more companies to produce machines for DNA coronavirus testing.
Rapid LamPORE tests
The new rapid LamPORE test will be able to process swab and saliva samples to detect the presence of COVID-19 in 60 to 90 minutes.
The new test has the same sensitivity as the widely used PCR swab test, but can be used to process swabs in labs, as well as on-location through ‘pop up’ labs. The desktop GridION machine can process up to 15,000 tests a day, or the palm-sized MinION can process up to 2,000 tests a day for deployment in a near-community ‘pop-up’ lab.
450,000 of the new LamPORE tests will be available from next week across adult care settings, NHS laboratories and lighthouse laboratories, with millions more tests to be rolled out later in the year.
Details of positive test results will be shared with NHS Test and Trace, so close contacts can self-isolate in line with guidance.
Regius Professor Chris Toumazou FRS, CEO and co-founder of DnaNudge and founder of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, commented: “The DnaNudge team worked with incredible speed and skill during the peak of the pandemic to deliver this highly accurate, rapid COVID-19 test, which requires absolutely no laboratory or pipettes and can be deployed anywhere with a direct sample-to-result in around just over an hour.
“We have been able to successfully adapt our in-store consumer DNA testing technology – which identifies genetic risks for chronic conditions related to obesity and type 2 diabetes – and validate it for detecting COVID-19 with gold-standard accuracy.
“We are extremely proud to be playing such a pivotal role in supporting the national effort on testing, as this major contract award signifies. With the ability to test not only for COVID-19 but also FluA, FluB and RSV on the same single COVID-19 Nudge cartridge, our multiplex test offers a vital solution to protect the NHS as we head into the flu season.”
Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore, said: “We are honoured to be playing a part in fighting COVID-19 in the UK, and preparing the country for the winter virus season. Ever since we founded Oxford Nanopore, our mission has been to create disruptive, high performance technology that has a profound, positive impact on society.
“LamPORE has the potential to deliver a highly effective and, crucially, accessible global testing solution, not only for COVID-19 but for a range of other pathogens. We are delighted to be working with the UK government to support and empower our communities to effectively manage testing at a national and localised level.”
Anyone in England with coronavirus symptoms who either has to leave home to go to work or is aged 65 and over will now be able to get tested.
Everyone in England aged 65 and over with coronavirus symptoms can now get tested, along with symptomatic members of their household
Symptomatic workers who are unable to work from home also eligible for testing
Testing of all asymptomatic NHS and social care staff and care home residents also being rolled out
New expansion of testing made possible due to rapidly increasing testing capacity
Anyone in England with symptoms of coronavirus who has to leave home to go to work, and all symptomatic members of the public aged 65 and over, will now be able to get tested, the UK government has announced.
This will mean people who cannot work from home and those aged 65 and over can know for sure whether they have coronavirus and need to continue isolating.
Members of their households with symptoms – a new continuous cough or high temperature – will also be eligible for testing.
Anyone eligible can book a test using an online portal.
The government also announced that NHS staff, care home staff and care home residents will be eligible for testing whether or not they have symptoms.
Working with Public Health England, the Care Quality Commission and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the government is piloting sending packages of ‘satellite’ test kits directly to care homes across England to enable testing of residents.
So far, 4,760 tests have been delivered to more than 4,300 locations. In addition, over 25,000 care staff have already been tested.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said: “Expansion of our testing programme protects our most vulnerable and keeps people safe.
“Testing is now available to all over 65s and members of their households, if they have symptoms.
“Any worker who needs to leave their home in order to go to work, and their households, if any of them have symptoms can also get a test. This means construction workers to emergency plumbers, research scientists to those in manufacturing – can now be tested.
“All they need to do is go on the internet and apply for a test.”
Testing for coronavirus helps the government and scientists understand its current spread and plan how to manage the pandemic.
As capacity has increased, testing has been offered to different groups in a phased approach, prioritising NHS workers. However, the ultimate aim is that anyone who needs a test will be able to have one.
Yesterday’s announcement marks a further step towards that goal. It follows the announcement last week that all essential workers with symptoms can now book a coronavirus test, or order a home testing kit, using the new online portal.
There are now more than 40 drive-through testing sites across the country, and, by the end of the week, 25,000 home testing kits will be available for ordering every day.
A network of mobile testing units is also travelling the country to reach care homes, police stations, prisons and other sites where there is demand for testing. The network is expected to reach over 70 units by the weekend.
Since the beginning of April, the government has significantly increased the UK’s coronavirus testing capacity, which currently stands at 73,400 tests per day and is on track to reach 100,000 tests daily by the end of the month.
The response to coronavirus is a national effort. Each of the devolved administrations will have their own eligibility criteria and testing priorities, however the government is working closely to align approaches.
All care home residents and social care staff with coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms will be tested as capacity is built up, the UK government is announcing today.
All symptomatic care residents will be tested for COVID-19 as testing capacity continues to increase
All patients discharged from hospital to be tested before going into care homes as a matter of course
All social care staff who need a test will now have access to one with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to contact all 30,000 care providers in the coming days to offer tests
Currently the first 5 symptomatic residents in a care home setting are tested to provide confirmation of whether if there is an outbreak.
However, as lab capacity increases every day the government is expanding testing to include all care home residents who develop symptoms.
The safety of residents and staff is a priority and as such, testing will now also be provided to all potential care home residents before they are discharged from hospital.
This will provide reassurance and peace of mind to residents and family members, and will help care providers to take appropriate action to ensure that social care workers and other residents are safe – including implementing isolation procedures for those who test positive.
The measures confirmed today are expected to be outlined further in the government’s COVID-19 social care action plan tomorrow, and will help give residents, their families and those that they care for peace of mind.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said: “I am deeply conscious that people in residential care are among the most vulnerable to coronavirus.
“We are doing everything we can to keep workers, residents and their families safe, and I am determined to ensure that everyone who needs a coronavirus test should be able to have access to one.
“We have already begun testing social care workers and will roll this out nationwide over the coming days. And as we continue to ramp up our testing programme, we will test all current care home residents with coronavirus symptoms and all new care home residents who are discharged from hospital into care.
“Testing is key in our battle against coronavirus, and as part of our plan to prevent the spread and save lives we will ensure that everyone in social care who needs a test can have a test.”
As the rollout continues, the Health Secretary has confirmed that every social care worker who needs a test can now get one.
Dedicated testing has already begun for frontline staff, including social care workers and in addition to over 20,000 tests for NHS workers and their families.
As capacity grows further through the government’s new mega labs, it will prioritise the testing of symptomatic social care workers and anyone in their household who have COVID-19 symptoms.
CQC are leading co-ordination of testing for the care sector, and have already offered 6,000 care facilities the opportunity to test their staff. By the end of the week they will have contacted all 30,000 care providers.
Care providers will identify workers eligible for testing and refer them to their local testing centre.
Tests for social care staff and residents will support the government to achieve its ambition of 100,000 COVID-19 tests a day by end of April.
