Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, the position on masks is this: that there is a national specialist group that advises the Government on the use of personal protective equipment, including higher grade masks. At the start of December, the chief nursing officer and the chief medical officer asked that committee for updated advice, looking at those masks in the context of the omicron variant. We follow their...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank the Member for that first question. Staff absences, combined with winter pressures and a rise in COVID cases, have led to significant challenges for health boards across Wales. All health boards, including those in the south-east, have plans in place to increase physical capacity and align available human resources with the most urgent clinical needs.
Mark Drakeford: Our national guidance has been updated and schools have been asked to operate at the very high risk level. Two planning days at the start of the term have enabled all schools to plan for the term ahead and ensure robust arrangements are in place to maximise in-person learning.
Mark Drakeford: Alert level 2 restrictions will help protect Caerphilly residents from the large wave of infections caused by the omicron variant of coronavirus. Businesses affected by the restrictions will receive financial help from the Welsh Government, starting this week.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government engages closely with Sport Wales, the Welsh Sports Association and all the national governing bodies providing guidance and funding support throughout the pandemic.
Mark Drakeford: We help tackle misinformation by providing accurate information on which people can base informed decisions. We encourage everyone to take their information from trusted sources. We ask anyone who hasn't had their vaccination to come forward, and to play their part in keeping themselves, their loved ones and Wales safe.
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for those questions. In relation to schools, Members will know that the education Minister wrote to all headteachers before the end of term setting the first two days of the new school term as planning and preparation days. In that letter to headteachers, he asked schools to prepare for two sorts of futures. One is a future in which children are largely still in the...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Peter Fox for those points. I recognise, as I try always to do, the point he's made—the significant sums of money that the UK Government has mobilised to deal with the pandemic. The point to remember, though, is that that is to deal with all the consequences of the pandemic, not just the business impact that we are seeing, but everything we've asked the health service to do: the...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Joyce Watson very much for those points. I want to thank all those people who work in our public services, and, of course, that includes teachers. We know that the autumn term has been a challenging term in many parts of Wales, with the efforts of people at the front line—teaching staff, teaching assistants, other people who make schools what they are. We've relied on them hugely,...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, we will publish statutory guidance for the public transport sector, including the bus sector, as to how they can operate safely in a regime of 2m distancing, giving them the comfort that there are mitigating measures they can take to cope with the demand that will still be there. That will be a different level of advice, and, as I say, it will be statutory guidance that we will issue...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, we will be publishing more advice and information, including some frequently asked questions. I know the Member will understand this is Christmas week. There are people who've made other plans in their lives, and they're often people who have worked incredibly hard and with very little time to themselves for weeks and weeks and weeks. So, the number of hands on deck is more limited...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, we are all frustrated at the latest twist and turn of coronavirus. None of us wanted to be in this position, and it’s only a very short number of weeks ago where, dealing only with delta, we had a reasonably straightforward path for Wales into Christmas and the new year. Unfortunately, omicron is a reality, and it has an impact on many aspects of Welsh life, including the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I recognise the impact that restrictions are having on businesses, but shops will reopen here in Wales after Christmas, hospitality will be able to reopen, and some offices will reopen too. Of course, we've been in contact with the sectors to prepare for the impact that the restrictions will have. That's what's brought us to the figures that we've announced today, and that's...
Mark Drakeford: Dirprwy Lywydd, can I begin by echoing everything that Jenny Rathbone said about the dedication of the people who work in the care sector and in the NHS? Most of us in this call today will be at home on Christmas Day with members of our family or with friends and they'll be in work. And they'll be going on providing the care that we rely on them to provide. So, I completely associate myself...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, it is not the COVID passes that have changed; it is the context within which they are being used. COVID passes have been a very successful part of our protections against the delta variant. We're now facing a different form of coronavirus—one that moves much more quickly—and we have to assess the use of COVID passes in that new context. Ice rinks will not be closed during the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I frankly reject most of what the Member has just said. How she thinks that she is in a better position to understand what the data is telling us than the chief medical officer and the chief scientist is completely baffling to me. Nor will I artificially change the rules for one sector when the rules are there to protect us all. There was one thing the Member said that I agreed with,...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you to John Griffiths for those questions.
Mark Drakeford: As far as parkruns are concerned, they can continue. There will be a limit of 50 people being able to take part directly in the run—that doesn't include people who are involved in stewarding or volunteering around it. And where it's junior parkruns for people under 18, there will be unlimited numbers available. I think I'm aware, already, of some parkruns that, because of the numbers, run a...
Mark Drakeford: In terms of GPs, we do use GP services to vaccinate those people who are housebound, and also to provide vaccinations to people in residential homes. Now, if you're working alone in vaccinating people, then it's important that you have a sufficient level of training to do that without the support of others, as would be available in vaccination centres. In terms of the lateral flow tests, we...
Mark Drakeford: No recording is available of this contribution in the original language. Well, thank you very much to Mabon ap Gwynfor for those questions. We've had the regime for weddings for some time now. Initially in the pandemic we placed a cap on numbers—no more than 10 or whatever that figure was—attending a wedding or attending a funeral, but we—[Inaudible.]
