Stephen Morgan MP said it would not be in Portsmouth’s or the nation’s interest to oppose the government’s continuing public health restrictions – but Ministers must now set out a long-term health and economic plan.
As the government proposes its public health restrictions for the winter period to be voted on in parliament, the weekly Covid-19 case rate per 100,000 in Portsmouth still sits at 240, according to the latest government data.
Further afield, between 12 November and 18 November 347,575 people were identified as coming into close contact with someone who had tested positive, only 60.3 per cent of which were reached and asked to self-isolate. This is still well below the 80 per cent needed for test and trace to be effective.
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, said,
“Covid-19 still poses a serious threat to our city and our country, so it would not be in Portsmouth’s or the nation’s interest to oppose the government’s proposals for continued public health restrictions.
However, the government has failed to use this lockdown to fix test and trace and now the Prime Minister seems to have stopped mentioning it altogether.
Test turnaround times are still far too slow, a fraction of those who are asked to self-isolate actually do, and the centralised Serco model is failing to reach nearly enough close contacts to be effective. The government has got to get a grip of this.”
In recent days it was also announced Portsmouth would be placed inside the tier 2 category after the country exits its second period of national lockdown.
Meanwhile the government continues to suggest a vaccine could be rolled out in a matter of days but is still yet to publish its plan on this.
Mr Morgan, added,
“The Prime Minister must publish a comprehensive national action plan which can meet the Easter target for vaccine roll out and have a communications plan to tackle vaccine hesitancy.
It is incredibly important that both as a local community and wider country we do not undo all the hard work we have put in to bring infection levels down, so government must implement an effective communications plan to ensure that continues to happen post-lockdown.”
Following the announcement of the Portsmouth falling into the second Covid-19 risk category, Stephen Morgan MP underlined the importance of Portsmouth residents to continue to follow government guidelines.
