Minister for Prisons and Probation, Lucy Frazer MP reveals loss of her father
Lucy Frazer MP, Minister for Prisons and Probation, has revealed that she understands the pain and loss people are suffering during the pandemic because she lost her father this week.
Revealing he "didn’t die of Covid, but he died with Covid", Lucy said: "I understand the tragedies that people have suffered as a result of this pandemic, I too lost my father this week and I recognise the absolute horror of people who are suffering across the country but the Government has at every stage taken steps to protect the country from this virus… of course, things change, and we have changed with them… we have at every stage thought about and reflected on the scientific evidence."
Lucy’s loss comes after Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi also admitted on the show earlier this week that he had lost his uncle to Covid.
Lucy went on to address what the Government are doing to get vaccine supply back up and running after a 21% drop in vaccination rates. She said: "The numbers fluctuate and that is to some extent the supply and where the supply comes from and we know that each batch has to be tested…What we set out very clearly was an end date, we did say at the start of the rollout of the vaccination, we are not going to commit to what we do on any particular day, recognising that the figures might go up and might go down, but what we will aim to do is to have vaccinated all of those groups by mid-February."
On Welsh schools opening after February half term and why this isn’t the plan in England, she commented: "The Prime Minister set out very clearly what our plan is…We want to have vaccinated those priority groups by mid-February and then we want to look at where we are, what is the death rate and what is the hospitalisation rate, we want to analyse that information, which we will be doing that week, and then we will be setting out our route map on the week of the 22nd February…Of course, it’s fantastic if other parts of the UK can go quicker for any reason, but that is our plan."