HEALTH secretary Sajid Javid has condemned racial abuse targeted at black England footballers after the Euro 2020 final on Sunday (11), saying racism has no place in the country.
“Racism has no place in football, or in our society, and I know the House will agree that we must show zero tolerance of this appalling behaviour,” Javid told the Commons on Monday (12).
He was updating MPs about the Covid-19 vaccine campaign and the rise in infection when he took a moment to congratulate the England team for making history and for the way they “brought the country together with their skill and spirit over the past few weeks”.
Javid has previously revealed his experience of racism growing up on "Britain's most dangerous street" in England.
Born in Rochdale to Pakistani immigrant parents, he described how he watched his mother scrub racist graffiti off their shop walls when they lived in Bristol, where his father worked as a bus driver.
In the session on Monday (12), Javid told MPs more than 80 million doses were given in seven months.
“We’ve given more doses per capita than any other large nation. And as a result, around nine in 10 adults in the UK now have Covid-19 antibodies which are so important in helping our bodies to fight the virus,” Javid said.
Data from Public Health England estimated that the vaccination programme in England has prevented between 7.5 million and 8.9 million infections, more than 46,000 hospitalisations and around 30,000 people losing their lives.
Javid also admitted that infection is rising again “propelled by the new, more transmissible delta variant”.
“And sadly, the case numbers will get a lot worse before they get better. We could reach 100,000 cases a day later in the summer,” Javid said, adding that hospitalisations are also rising, but not at the rate which was seen earlier due to the vaccination programme.
Although the delta variant is more transmissible than the alpha variant, the evidence shows that two doses of the vaccine appear to be just as effective against hospitalisation, Javid said. He added that he did not believe the recent rise in cases will put unsustainable pressure on the NHS.
