PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
World Health Organisation preconditions for lifting covid-19 lockdowns: test, trace and isolate (21 April 2020)

That this House notes that one of the World Health Organisation's six preconditions for lifting lockdowns includes the capacity to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact; is deeply concerned that this precondition is not reflected in the Government’s five tests for exiting lockdown and believes that this omission risks putting more lives in jeopardy; believes that while appropriately protected phone apps will have an important role to play, their use will need to be coupled with human-led contact tracing to be effective; further believes that the best way to prevent further covid-19 outbreaks and new lockdowns is to put in place a nationwide system of testing, identifying infected individuals, tracing their contacts, and imposing supported quarantine requirements; therefore urges the Government to widen its criteria for exiting lockdown to include the WHO recommendations on testing, tracing and isolating contacts; calls on the Government to urgently put in place the infrastructure for these community shields via a comprehensive, targeted system to report, isolate, test, monitor and contract trace, thereby creating a network of community-based protection schemes to respond quickly to any re-emergence of covid-19 once the current lockdown is lifted; and recommends that this action should be coordinated by Public Health England’s regional Outbreak Management Teams and the appropriate devolved Public Health bodies, working in coordination with GPs, local authority public health teams, and suitably experienced and trained volunteers.

Sponsored by:
Caroline Lucas (Green Party)