Vaughan Gething: [Inaudible.] Sorry, I've managed to be muted. It shouldn't come as a surprise to the Member or others to know that I wasn't watching the S4C documentary while I was working last night. I can multitask and cook, but I can't watch the tv and do the work that I need to do at the same time. I've noted a range of the measures that we need to prepare for, and, in fact, the Academy of Medical...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I think that question reveals the very sharp differences and divides in views from people on an individual and a local level and the conversations we have on a national level with stakeholder bodies. There is a regular conversation with people running residential care—both local authorities who still provide and commission large parts of the residential care sector, as well as the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd, and I formally move the three sets of regulations before us today, and I ask Members to support all three sets of regulations. As with the regulations that preceded them, the three sets of regulations being debated today were introduced under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 through emergency procedures to support our national approach to tackling...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. I thank Members for contributing to the debate. I'll try to respond to the variety of points. I might not get through all of them, given the number of specific points made. Just in terms of dealing with the points raised by the committee, I have written to the committee. I don't know if the letter's got to the Chair yet, but I think that will cover the points that have...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. I formally move the three sets of regulations before us today and ask Members to support them. As with the regulations that have preceded them, these regulations being debated today have been introduced under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 through emergency procedures to support our approach to tackling coronavirus here in Wales. As the prevalence of...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd, and I thank Members for their contributions to the debate, which I'll try to deal with in turn. I thank Dai Lloyd for his contribution on behalf of the committee. I noted the correction required in my opening comments and confirm there was no practical impact for the issue that needed correction. I don't believe there is inconsistency between the guidance and the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Members will be aware that I announced our intention to develop a winter protection plan for Wales over the summer. I'm pleased to confirm we have now published that plan, following our work with stakeholders. The events from the last week have reinforced why this is needed. Despite all of the good progress made over the summer, the position remains...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for that series of questions, which I'll try to address as quickly as time allows. You're correct; my understanding is that officials were informed on 2 September, and I was informed with a serious incident alert on 3 September. That's entirely normal. Public Health Wales had already informed the Information Commissioner, as they should do, of the breach. They had identified what...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for that series of questions I'll run through. I think it's important to recognise what I am saying about the comparison with February. Of course, we're in a better position in terms of our preparation and understanding, with the practical experience and learning from the last six months or so. That's not the point that I'm making; I think the Member knows that isn't the point that...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the series of questions. I think I largely addressed challenges about elective care and waiting lists in response to Andrew R.T. Davies's first set of questions, in acknowledging both that we have a significant challenge to address over a significant period of time, but the fact that the NHS has been progressively opening itself for more work; there is elective care...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member, and, of course, we do set out some of the challenges he sets out at the start, in terms of taking local action in preference to national action, in our coronavirus control plan and, as the First Minister has reminded Members today, our test, trace, protect service works, effectively, as a smart lockdown. If people are honest and upfront about their contacts, we'll get to...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. I think it's a really important question, because delayed transfers of care cause real harm within our system. People that don't need to be in hospital almost always end up suffering harm. If you're immobile and in a bed, rather than being up and around, that's a challenge and a problem for that person. Many of the people we're talking about are vulnerable and, in particular, older...
Vaughan Gething: It's a completely fair point the Member makes, and others have alluded to as well in earlier questions, about elective care and doing as much as we possibly can do, and how we transparently set that out. You will see plans, when we publish the operational framework and quarter 3 and quarter 4 plans that I expect to come back in for us to be able to publish through October, for how we want to...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. On testing, I recognise the point that the Member has made. To be fair, as well as in the Chamber, a number of Members have approached me directly, in their capacity of representing their constituencies and regions, about the issue. On Welsh ambulance response times, we're seeing both the return of more normal activity, as well as the backlog of activity that built up in...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you to the Member for the questions. I'm happy to confirm that the NHS COVID app is now done on a local, not a central, basis. That was one of the concerns about privacy, so it should be largely resolved. So, this is the second round of running an app. While Scotland and Northern Ireland have a proximity app that tells you how close you've been to other people, the app that England and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you for the opportunity to update Members today about the very latest situation affecting parts of south Wales. Over the last few weeks, we have seen a rise in the number of new cases of coronavirus in Wales overall and in four local authority areas in particular: in Caerphilly, in Merthyr Tydfil, in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Newport. This increase is largely being...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. On the starting point about the terminology used, we're using the terminology that's set out in our coronavirus control plan. I accept completely that it's being reported as a local lockdown, just as Caerphilly was, and I actually don't think it makes a lot of sense for the Government to try to fight a battle to persuade the public or the media not to describe...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of questions. I've set out in some detail over the weekend and yesterday the very real challenges and frustrations that came from a decision at official level within the UK Government to restrict lighthouse lab testing to centres to 60 per day in Wales, in Northern Ireland, and similar restrictions in Scotland too. That's why I had rapid conversations with other...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of questions from the Member. In terms of your first point, about holidays, I recognise that Hefin David has been making the case in particular yesterday, but in correspondence and conversation with me as well, about his residents in the Caerphilly constituency, and I'm happy to take up the Member's suggestion to write again to parts of the holiday industry. We've...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. Perhaps I'll deal with that final point first. You'll recall that we had real difficulty and challenges at the start of the pandemic in significantly increasing our own testing resources. We had equipment on order that was held up and not able to be delivered into Wales. That was because of restrictions provided in other countries. And we then also had some challenges when...
