Thread by @Telegraph

Matt Hancock will face questions after Dominic Cummings' 'smoking ruin' comments

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…

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Boris Johnson's former chief aide told MPs that it was "no coincidence" that the vaccine taskforce was brought directly under the Prime Minister following the Department of Health's "obviously disastrous" handling of the pandemic

Dominic Cummings said, "In spring 2020 you had a situation where the Department of Health was just a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE and all of that"

Boris Johnson's official spokesman insisted the PPE procurement process had been a success, and argued the Department of Health and the NHS "were central to the rollout of the vaccination programme"

Matt Hancock says 25 million people have now been vaccinated

The vaccination programme delivered 529,119 vaccines yesterday

The Health Secretary says the vaccine has given 9 in 10 of the over-70s Covid antibodies

Matt Hancock says deaths are falling fast - by a third in the last week alone

The latest data shows that the vaccine reduces the chance of:

📌 Getting Covid by 60%
📌 Going to hospital with the disease by 80%
📌 Dying by 85%

Living with someone who has had the vaccine also reduces a person's change of getting the virus by 30%

The Government is on track to offer a jab to all people in priority groups 1-9 by mid-April

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam says it is important to get the first phase of the programme (groups 1-9) "done properly" before moving on to younger people

With a classic JVT analogy, he adds: "A bit like a football game where the strikers who score the wonder goals make the headlines - actually the hard yards are done by the defenders and the defensive midfielders, tracking back, for 90 minutes and watching everybody's back"

Professor Van-Tam says that the European Medicines Agency does not believe that the AstraZeneca jab causes blood clots.

He adds,"Vaccines don't save lives if they are in fridges. They only save lives if they are in arms"

JVT compares the potential side effects of the vaccine to those of paracetamol. There may be rare side effects like there are in any drug, he says, but "we all recognise the benefits"

Matt Hancock says vaccinated people will not get let out of lockdown sooner

The Health Secretary is asked about the EU blocking vaccines leaving Europe for the UK.

He says: "We legally signed the contract for the delivery of the first hundred million doses for people here in the UK...We expect those contracts to be delivered on"

Matt Hancock hits back at Dominic Cummings.

He says, "The rollout is has been a team effort. Everyone involved in the vaccine rollout would agree that we all have that positive esprit de corps. And that's the best to leave it"

Jason Groves from the Daily Mail says Mr Hancock has "skated over" the issue of vaccine supply, but it looks like a "big deal."

The Health Secretary says a lumpy supply is "par for the course"

Professor Van-Tam says the timing of public inquiries into the Government's handling of coronavirus is "entirely a matter for ministers and politicians - it is not a matter for physicians"

Mr Hancock is asked whether the dates in the lockdown roadmap are "set in stone."

He replies that they are, and the roadmap is a "cautious but irreversible path"

The UK has now given out over 25m first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine - use our tool to see if your area is ahead or behind target ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/1…