Matt Hancock: Vaccines are breaking the ‘unbreakable link’ between Covid cases and deaths
The “unbreakable link” from Covid cases to hospitalisations and deaths is now being broken as Britain begins to emerge from the grips of the pandemic, the health secretary has said.
Latest official data showed infections have fallen 34 per cent over the past week, as the UK makes rapid progress with the vaccine rollout.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Matt Hancock said hospital admissions plunged dramatically over the past seven days, and are falling around 30 per cent every week.
The most recent seven-day drop marked the fastest decline in coronavirus-related hospitalisations at any point in the pandemic.
Meanwhile, deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test fell 41 per cent in the past week, which the heath secretary said “really [showed] the effects of the vaccine”.
“The link from cases to hospitalisations and to deaths, that had been unbreakable before the vaccine — that link is now breaking. The vaccine is protecting the NHS and saving lives right across the country,” he added.
It comes as more than 21.3m people across the country have now received their first dose of a Covid vaccine — equivalent to around two two-fifths of the entire adult population.
The government has set a fresh target to offer an injection to all over-50s by 15 April, and all adults in the UK by 31 July.
However, Hancock urged cautious optimism over the decline in cases, adding that regular testing will be key to lifting lockdown measures.
“One of the most dangerous things about this virus is that around one third of those who get it will have no symptoms and yet they can still pass it on to others,” he said this evening.
“Rapid regular testing is a critical part of our response and we can do more because of the huge capacity built up by Test and Trace,” Hancock added.
The contact tracing scheme, which has so far received £22bn from the taxpayer, is set to receive an extra £15bn over the net financial year — bringing its total funding to £37bn.
Hancock said he was “delighted” at Test and Trace’s success in locating a sixth person infected with a new Brazil variant of coronavirus, after a week-long hunt.
The missing individual, who had failed to fill in their contact details on their test registration form, was located in the London borough of Croydon.
Further precautionary testing will take place in Croydon in light of the discovery, alongside sample sequencing to ensure that there are no further cases in the community.