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Good afternoon and welcome to my regular South West Surrey update No. 98. As of today, we have a total of 2,836,801 positive cases of COVID-19 with 77,346 confirmed deaths in the UK. There have been 3,756 confirmed cases in Waverley and sadly 118 confirmed deaths, with an estimated 1,128 active cases in Waverley. Over 1.8 million doses of the vaccine have been given. All data is accurate as of 11am this morning.

Assault on democracy the scenes from Capitol Hill shocked us all last night. I had friendly relations with Trump as Foreign Secretary (as was my job) but he shamed American democracy last night ([link removed]) as I tweeted. But we should remember he does not speak for America, which has just thrown him out, nor even for the Republican party anymore. And the real news was that the Senate, led by the previously uber-loyal Vice President Trump, confirmed a peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Biden ([link removed]) in the early hours of the morning.

Lockdown When I called for schools to be closed on Monday morning ([link removed]) it is fair to say I wasn’t expecting things to change so quickly. But even though the right decision was taken it is now a race against time because such measures take three weeks to feed through into hospital admissions but according to the Health Service Journal London hospitals will run out of intensive care beds in just two weeks as I discussed on ITV’s Peston last night ([link removed]) . We still need to do more on borders - why are we not requiring negative tests for people arriving in the UK as many countries do? I talked about this on Times radio earlier this week here ([link removed]) and reflect on the lockdown in general ([link removed]) in my Herald column this week.

What are the rules? Slightly different to before. You must stay at home ([link removed]) unless you have extenuating circumstances (such as work that cannot be done from home or shopping for essentials). You should also only meet people outside if they are part of your same household group or if you part of a legally recognised bubble (more on what that means here ([link removed]) ) although you can still meet one other person from another household for outside exercise which is now limited to once a day. Hairdressers are closed but dentists remain open. Restaurants can continue to offer takeaway services, and schools remain open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers (more on that here
([link removed]) ). If you were shielding during the spring you must start doing this straight away and you should receive a letter in the post about this shortly). You can find the full rules and the reasons why they have been established here ([link removed]) .

Exams cancelled The Education Secretary clarified to the House of Commons yesterday that GCSE and A-Level exams planned for the summer will be scrapped and replaced by teacher grades. The [DEL: nightmare :DEL] delight of home schooling starts again for those of us with school age kids. You can find the full details on this here ([link removed]) . The government is also making provisions for students to get laptops and free 4G WIFI where needed (more here ([link removed]) ).

How does this end? The question we have all been asking. The answer, we hope, is jabs in the arm for all those who the virus could kill. But the six million dollar question is whether the vaccine will work with the new strain as I asked the Prime Minister yesterday. ([link removed]) He didn’t really answer the question but I spoke to Matt Hancock later who said they are expecting the results from the Porton Down laboratory in a few days time for the new Kent strain and shortly after that for the South African strain. There is still the ‘theoretical’ risk of the virus mutating so that the vaccines don’t work, which would mean at best another 6 weeks of tweaking the vaccine so it did work. But of course the entire vaccine programme would have to start again from scratch so the delay would be much longer than that.

The key number to remember for anyone with pandemic-related difficulties remains 0300 200 1008 the Surrey Helpline run by Surrey County Council (Mon-Fri 9 am to 5 pm).
WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER

Parliament Re-called Yesterday Parliament was re-called so we could pass the required legislation to enforce a national lockdown. As well as asking the PM about whether the vaccine worked on new strains (see above) I also asked whether we were pressing on with mass testing. We need a plan B because as we have learned nothing is certain with a pandemic.

Select Committee With the new lockdown in mind, later today, I will be chairing a special session of the Health and Social Care Select Committee with Matt Hancock as our witness. Part of our questioning will be on why the government didn’t decide on the lockdown last week rather than sending children back for just one day. You can watch live here ([link removed]) from 3 pm.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN SOUTH WEST SURREY

Vaccine Roll Out . A lot of residents have been in touch over the past few days because their vaccine appointment at St Christopher's Church in Haslemere has been cancelled. I have been in regular contact with the Director of the local CCG, Dr Claire Fuller who tells me they have had logistical issues which they are working hard to resolve. If your appointment has been cancelled, your GP surgery will contact you within the next 7 to 10 days to re-book your appointment which will still be at St Christopher's Church. Claire and her whole team have been doing great work and we appear to be ahead of many other areas in Surrey in terms of vaccine distribution.

Beware of Scams There are a fair few COVID scams doing the rounds at the moment. The most pernicious look like a text or email from the NHS inviting you for a vaccine and then asking for personal details. For advice on what is and isn't fake, please take a look at this website ([link removed]) .

Online Shopping Although most high street stores are shut because of the lockdown, we have no excuse not to continue shopping locally thanks to the online Click It Local ([link removed]) services that have been set up in partnership with Waverley Borough Council. Great initiative.

Congratulations (and apologies for missing him on Monday) to John Hambly on being awarded an OBE for his services to people with disabilities in Surrey and the Home Counties. One very proud MP!

See my list of local groups working to support vulnerable residents here ([link removed]) .

THE ECONOMY AND JOBS

On Tuesday the Chancellor announced additional support measures for businesses and employees. This includes £4.6 billion in new grants (Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses which have been forced to close can now claim a one-off grant worth up to £9,000). On top of this, the Furlough and Self-Employed Income support schemes have been extended until April 2021. Local authorities will also be given an additional £500 million in discretionary funding to support their local businesses. You can find out more here
([link removed]) .

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

And finally, congratulations to the residents of Godalming who have brought more wine from Sainsbury’s than any other store nationwide. I suspect much more will be bought in the coming weeks…

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