Item 3 is the next item. The statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services on the latest information on coronavirus, COVID-19, is that statement. The Minister for health is self-isolating because of an illness in his family, and he's continuing with his ministerial responsibilities and is accountable to this Senedd. If the technology does fail, then the First Minister will complete this item. If Members will need the sound to be amplified during the item, please use your headsets. I call on the Minister for health to make his statement—Vaughan Gething.

Will you say something? He can't hear us. Okay. I'd like to put on record my thanks to the Minister for attempting to deliver his statement and to answer the questions of Members by Skype. I wish you well in your self-isolation, Minister, and in carrying on your work as the Minister for health—but not for the next 45 minutes, it seems. Therefore, I call on the First Minister to deliver the statement on coronavirus. 

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. The Health minister would have begun his statement this afternoon by reminding all Members of how much has changed over the week since he last reported to the Senedd. In that time, the World Health Organization has declared coronavirus as a pandemic. The response in Wales and the other UK nations has moved from containment to delay. Sadly, we have also had our first deaths from coronavirus here in Wales. I know that on behalf of the whole Senedd I express our sorrow and sympathy for the families who have lost loved ones. Sad as it is to say it, we have to expect that there will be more such events in the weeks ahead.

So, the aims of Governments across the United Kingdom in the delay phase of the plan to tackle coronavirus are to slow the spread of the virus and to lower the peak impact, and thus to push it away from the current end of the winter season. Both of these aims will help the NHS to cope with the challenges it will face in caring for larger numbers of very unwell people. Doing this gives us all the best chance of our NHS not being overwhelmed. That in turn means that we can save more lives in the months ahead.

Llywydd, it is inevitable that many more people will now contract the virus. The great majority of people will feel unwell for a short period before making a full recovery at home. They will not need medical intervention. Instead, we need to target our resources on the small percentage of our fellow citizens who will need that additional help. The best advice that we have as a Government is that, at this point in the process of the disease, trying to identify, monitor and contain every case, however mild, is not the best use of the resources we have.

Members here will know that at the COBRA on Monday of this week the Welsh Government agreed with the other three national Governments across the UK to advise the public to take further extraordinary measures. Our advice to people who think they may have coronavirus has strengthened. Anyone who develops a high temperature or a new continuous cough should stay at home for seven days. They should not go to their GP or to a pharmacy or to a hospital, nor should they routinely contact the NHS on 111. People should only seek help if they cannot deal with their symptoms at home, if their condition worsens significantly or if they do not recover within seven days.

As Members here will know, following Monday's COBRA meeting, the advice for people now is that if you are living with somebody in a household where someone develops a high temperature or a new continuous cough, then the whole household should stay at home for 14 days. Now, further advice on self-isolation at home is available from Public Health Wales. People are also advised to use the COVID-19 online symptom checker on the NHS Direct Wales website if you have concerns about your symptoms. 

Llywydd, we've also asked people across the wider population to reduce social contact. That includes working from home if you can and not going by choice into crowded areas such as pubs or restaurants. All people aged 70 and over, people under 70 with underlying health conditions and pregnant women should now actively practice social distancing measures. That's because these groups are identified as having a higher risk of becoming seriously unwell and therefore needing to limit their social interaction to reduce the risk of transmission. For those under 70 with underlying health conditions, the starting point is that, if your health condition entitles you to a free NHS flu jab, then you are covered by that advice. In the next week, the NHS will directly contact a range of vulnerable people with specific advice about risks to them. That is likely to involve even more significant measures for those whose immune systems are most significantly compromised. 

The position adopted in the other parts of the United Kingdom in relation to large gatherings is now to be followed across the whole of the United Kingdom. Our emergency services will not staff or plan for large public events. They, too, like the rest of the NHS family, will focus their time on dealing with the response to coronavirus as it further develops.

Llywydd, as Members know from earlier this afternoon, there have been questions about our current approach to testing. At this point in the progress of the disease, our focus has shifted away from community testing, because that is the best advice we have. Testing will now focus on people who are admitted to hospital, in line with national guidance and based on symptoms and severity. There is strong evidence from around the world that they can and will recover. This is about ensuring that our testing capacity is focused where there is greatest need. In addition to those in hospital, testing will now be made available to people working in key NHS clinical roles to ensure that they are not taken out of the workplace longer than is necessary. The number of these roles covered will extend as our testing capacity develops. Public Health Wales will continue its surveillance work to understand the overall picture in Wales. 

Llywydd, on Friday of last week, our colleague, Vaughan Gething announced far-reaching temporary measures to release NHS capacity to deal with the outbreak. Health and social service providers will suspend non-urgent out-patient appointments and surgical admissions and the monitoring and regulatory regime will be relaxed across the health and care system.

We know that the outbreak will significantly increase the demands made on hospitals, care homes and primary care practitioners, and in particular, on the staff in these organisations. The changes announced last Friday will allow our health and social care system to keep people out of hospital who do not need to be there, and it is even more important than ever before that people who do have the highest need for hospital care can be treated without delay. Friday's decisions will allow health boards and others to make the best use of capacity in priority areas, to redeploy and retrain staff for different roles to respond to the impact of coronavirus and to maintain services for other essential treatments, such as cancer services.

Today, the health Minister has approved the next set of national actions to support health and social care preparedness. These include: guidance provided on the testing of symptomatic healthcare workers in isolation; further urgency in the rolling out of video consultations in primary care; announcing forthcoming guidance on the delivery of dental services to avoid preventable exposure to patients and staff; and further work rapidly to increase critical care beds, staffing and equipment.

Llywydd, right across the Welsh Government, ministerial colleagues continue to work closely with public services across Wales to ensure that they are prepared. Last week, meetings took place with local authority leaders and they have continued into this week. Our local authorities will have all the help and support that we can provide in keeping vital public services running. They too have a hugely important leadership role and that is especially so in the way that they will work with third sector partners to co-ordinate support for the large number of people who will now be self-isolating.

This is a dynamic and rapidly evolving situation, and the Welsh Government will continue to take further measures as necessary and as the evidence dictates. The health Minister intends to publish information on which decisions have been made—the evidence—ahead of the health committee on 18 March, and I know that he still hopes to be able to answer Members' questions alongside the chief medical officer in front of that committee.

In the meantime, we need to go on reminding ourselves and all our fellow citizens of those simple measures that we can all take and that, collectively, will make a difference; those simple steps to help manage and limit the impact of the virus. Maintaining regular hand-washing and self-isolation where necessary will make a real and positive difference, as will helping family, friends and neighbours when they have to self-isolate.

Llywydd, we are asking people to make extraordinary choices to match the extraordinary times we face. We ask people to do this, to help their friends and families; we ask people to do this to help friends and families that they may never otherwise meet. The health Minister, I and ministerial colleagues will, of course, Llywydd, continue to keep Members and the people of Wales fully and regularly informed, as the progress of the disease continues.

First Minister, I'd like to thank you for your statement today, and I'd like to join with you in sending my deepest condolences to the two families that have lost people in the recent moments. And I will also think that every time I get up, I'm going to be saying a massive thank you to the health services—we can't say it enough to the front-line staff and to the social care staff, but also to the unsung heroes in the background—the researchers who are trying to find the cure for this dreadful COVID-19, and to all of those who support all of these people in this effort.

Now, I obviously listened to you very carefully during First Minister's questions. I wanted to first of all say that I absolutely support all of the actions that you've taken here, from suggesting that 70-year-olds must stay at home for self-isolation; what we need to do to keep ourselves safe; and how we look after people who've got compromised immune systems and are recovering from very difficult diseases. We are with you on that, and I think that's excellent. 

But, I do want to just ask you a couple of other questions to do with the whole issue of how we proceed with tackling COVID-19. I can't not ask you again about the testing regime. I heard very clearly, and actually it chimed with me very strongly, your comment about, 'Our scientific evidence, our CSAs and our CMOs giving us the evidence that is the rock on which we must base all of our decisions, and if we shift that rock around, then we are in a very, very difficult state'. So, I'm not asking you to do that, but what I am asking you to do is perhaps tell us how you are currently evaluating, constantly, the current decision not to test greater numbers of the population. I think it's because I'm very interested in examples of places such as South Korea that have managed to drop from almost 1,000 cases a day to fewer than 100 cases a day. Their absolute ethos is that testing centrally led to early detection, it minimised spread and it quickly treated those with the virus. So, I appreciate that all of the home Governments are united that this is the way we go forward, but I would just like to know how you're looking at that and how you're evaluating that performance.

I'm also very interested in the testing issue, because I wondered whether you have any information at all about the viability of home testing kits. The reason, again, I ask that is because if we're testing our healthcare professionals, we have to retest them, retest them and retest them, because they might be well on Monday, but if they're living with someone who's got COVID-19, they might not be well on Wednesday or Friday.

Secondly, we have a very elderly population. We have a lot of people who need extra support at home. We have a lot of isolated people who will find it very difficult to get out if buses run less and if transport happens less, and if we could actually use all of these great voluntary groups that are putting themselves together—people like us—to go out and help, it would be so useful if we could be tested, because then we could, actually—even if we don't do the practical stuff of changing a dressing in someone's home, actually what we can do is see an older person and talk to them for half an hour to lift that isolation and loneliness that, after 14 weeks, could well take hold. So, if you could give us anything on that where we can look at how we might be able to help, it would be really good if we could be confident that those who are going into people's homes—helping the elderly, helping those who are pregnant and helping those with other conditions—are really safe.

I wanted to touch on access to medicines in a number of different ways, one is access to medicines from abroad. I understand that there are a few areas where medicines are being held back or production is being altered, and I wondered whether you could just give us any overview on what the home nations are doing to ensure that we can get access to medicines. But, I also wanted to talk very briefly, First Minister, about what you might put in place to ensure that general practitioners' surgeries, which would normally give somebody two weeks' worth of medication at a time, actually review their prescribing policy so that people can actually get a sufficient amount of medicine to help them if they've been self-isolated, or to stop people having to go out to keep getting these repeat prescriptions. I'm hearing quite a lot of people say, 'I can't get more than two weeks at any one time of any particular drug'.

I wondered whether you might be able to give us an outline of what support you'll be able to give additionally to the area of mental health. What plans do you have to ensure that mental health crisis care is still able to provide additional support, especially to those who need it, obviously, now? Because that actual support—and necessary support—might, in fact, be more, given the fear and concerns that people face.

This is a complete left-fielder, but I feel this actually quite strongly. People are scared. People aren't sure what's happening. We know that we talk about it and we publish it, and I wondered if you or one of your Ministers would consider talking to ITV, BBC and S4C about doing a short statement on the six o'clock news every night that just updates people with what is happening. Because I think that when you read the e-mails that come in, when you see the social media, the fake news and the general sense of panic, I just wonder if a steadying hand in the Welsh media and across the social media platforms would actually be of benefit. You don't always have to say something new; it's repeating the same old messages and telling people it's okay, they don't need to go and buy tonnes of food, they will not starve to death, they will get the medicines they need, they will get the support from all the Governments, they will be okay. I think people need to hear it daily, daily and daily. 

I've left the last bit of my commentary, Presiding Officer, to pharmacies. They are under quite a lot of pressure. We have got pharmacists that still have not got any of the protective equipment that they've been promised. The protective equipment isn't great quality and there are concerns from GPs about it already, let alone the pharmacists. Pharmacists are really under pressure because what's happening is that people are phoning their GPs, GPs are saying, 'Don't come to us, we're closing our doors, we'll talk to you over the phone, we'll tell you what you want.' Well, guess where they're going? To the pharmacist. Pharmacists are feeling under immense pressure and the point they make, as they slowly fall by the wayside with this illness and have to go into self-isolation, have to close for a couple of days for a deep clean, is: what happens then? We've already got a pharmacist in Narberth who has had to close and one in Haverfordwest that's had to close. This is putting immense pressure on pharmacists. They believe that they are the ones who are having to, and do willingly—not 'having to'—give out medications for things such as diabetes, heart medication and so forth. They believe that the health boards are not supporting them. They believe that they don't really get the ramifications; they're so busy concentrating on front line in hospitals and GP surgeries that nobody is thinking about the guys who actually come along behind and sweep up a huge number of people—they're the first call if they have a problem. So, I wondered if you can perhaps address this issue because they do say that they've had no support, no advice from the actual health boards themselves.

And finally, and this is a marginally cheeky one, but of course you had a nice little warehouse stocked full of stuff ready for Brexit, and I wondered if you could actually tell us if you've still got stuff in there, what kind of stuff and would that stuff be able to be deployed in this current crisis. Thank you very much, First Minister. 

Thank you, Llywydd. Thank you to Angela Burns, Llywydd, this afternoon, and I'll do my best to answer questions where I have the information to hand. I know Members will understand that there will be some of the more detailed questions where, not expecting to have been answering questions on this statement, I'll need to provide Members with a more informed reply. 

As Angela Burns has said, while we have been sitting here this afternoon a second death of a patient in Wales has been announced and, of course, our thoughts are with all of those connected with that person. Can I also echo what Angela said in thanking not simply the front-line staff whose responsibilities we have emphasised here this afternoon, but all those who sit behind them and who mean that they can do the jobs that we need them to do?

As far as the testing regime is concerned, I can give the Member a complete assurance that the emerging evidence from around the world continues to be reviewed all the time at the scientific advisory committee. Indeed, I know that the Welsh representative was going to that committee today with some very specific questions to raise in relation to testing, and advice on testing. So, the advice that we get from our chief medical officers and our chief scientific officers is tested every day—tested internally by themselves, tested against the emerging international evidence—and, as I said in answering questions earlier, if the advice changes, then we will follow that emerging advice because that advice will be following the evidence as best it can.

In relation to extending the availability of testing to a wider range of people than front-line clinical staff, that will be something we will think about, of course. It will need to be matched against two things: the capacity we have for testing, which we want to grow, and the extent to which diverting people to do that work takes priority over other things that they could do, but it remains an open issue that we review all the time.

Thank you for the point made about repeat prescriptions, which I'll make sure we'll take up through the normal machinery. As far as mental health is concerned, Members here will know that we have a series of helplines that we have mobilised at different times for different purposes. We've turned them on particularly at times of stress in rural communities in Wales, and we intend to use the call centre and the very expert staff that we have based in it in Wrexham to make sure that when people need an immediate access because they have a mental health issue, that they need help in signposting people to get the help they need, that that helpline will be geared up to respond in the current coronavirus context.

As to appearing on the news, I think I said earlier this afternoon that the Welsh Government will be providing a daily briefing for the press in Wales. We're probably going to do it at 9:30 every morning to make sure that people have assurance and information on a daily basis. It will, as ever, be for news outlets to then decide how to use that information, but we are, in the way that Angela Burns suggested, very keen to make sure that there is the most regular possible flow of information to the Welsh public.

I want to recognise very much what she said about the importance of community pharmacies. We've always been very lucky in Wales with our network of over 700 community pharmacies. They, too, will be feeling the strain and they will be a very important part of our ability to provide a resilient service to people across Wales. I know that efforts are being made to make sure they have the equipment that they need and I'll take up the point that the Member made about the need for health boards to regard them as part of their front-line response in the coronavirus context.

Finally, to the Brexit warehouse, that does mean that we have a stock of medical supplies that we can still draw on, and that's part of the answer to the point that Angela Burns made about availability of medicines. Because we were preparing against the eventuality of a 'no deal' exit, there are some stockpiles still to draw on. The last information I saw was not alarming in relation to the availability of medicines in the immediate future. There may be a point later in the year when the fact that Chinese manufacturers, for example, will not have been working in the way they normally have, where there will be issues that we need to face, but they're not here and now issues as far as coronavirus is concerned. 

I want to ask about three areas: two relating to health, but if you will forgive me, one is to do with education, because there is no opportunity to discuss education here this afternoon, and also because a development has reached us in the last half an hour. We’ve become aware that there is a school that has closed its doors already to pupils.

Ysgol Brynhyfryd in Ruthin has found that 23 members of staff are in the vulnerable category, with five additional staff members having partners who are in that specific category as well. So, that’s 28 of their staff members, and I think there are only 60 members of staff in Brynhyfryd school. A letter has gone out to parents saying that the school is closing its doors from tomorrow onwards for all pupils. So, the situation is changing as we discuss issues in the Chamber here today. And the letter goes on to say that the learning and teaching will carry on online and that is very good news, of course, for those pupils who need to continue their studies. Evidently, they’ve started to put those plans in place. But this raises major questions, doesn’t it, about schools deciding, because of the situation, that they are closing anyway.

So, what exactly are the guidelines of the Government for schools that are going to be finding themselves in the situation where there is a large percentage of staff—nearly half of the staff, in this case—finding themselves in the vulnerable category? And what is the Government saying to those schools when they find themselves in that situation? And what are the guidelines for safe staffing levels? Children, tomorrow, who would be having free school meals at school, what’s going to happen to them now?

I know you said earlier that you’re discussing the possibilities about what to do, and I’m sure that in Ruthin they will have their preparations, but the problem is a live problem now, isn’t it, and you understand now why we were asking these questions during the business statement and why we need to have information and clarity about the situation.

What are the guidelines for parents who are working in the NHS and their children now being at home? What are those workers supposed to do? Should they continue going to work or are they going to have to improvise some arrangements now so that children can be looked after, because we need them in the workplace? So, a great many questions. I intended to ask them tomorrow of the education Minister, but I’m asking them of you now, because you're First Minister, if we could have clarity on that.

Turning to the other questions, Rhun ap Iorwerth was going to make a contribution here and he was going to ask you about the ventilators. It’s extremely important—that's the message that I’m getting from Ysbyty Gwynedd, in my area. We need plenty of ventilators in our hospitals, and, of course, we need the staff also who understand how these ventilators work. What are your arrangements? What practical steps are you working on in order to ensure that there are enough ventilators that are going to be available for the wards that need them? We’re aware that one business in Wales is starting to manufacture ventilators, or at least they have found a way to do that quickly, and I’d be happy enough to pass those details on to you. That kind of thing is to be welcomed, of course.

And the final question is about testing. I do return to this, the issue of testing. It’s vital. I do know that there is perhaps a feeling that front-line staff in hospitals shouldn’t be out in these testing centres, and that they should be in the hospitals making preparations. I do understand that, and that it’s a staff shortage that driving this, the end of the day, which is another question. But without having this information about how many people are affected by this virus, how are we going to know how the growth is developing, or emerging?

I understand that in Gwynedd, for example, Bryn y Neuadd Hospital was open for these tests at the start of this period—well, last week, to tell you the truth. But the information now is that that isn’t being used any more—Ysbyty Alltwen the same.

Is there anyone in my area being tested at present? The maps show Gwynedd as an area where there is no coronavirus at present. I don’t know whether that’s changed in the last couple of hours, but it shows that there are no people affected. But, surely—surely—there are people who are being affected, and what that means is that people from the urban areas are looking at the map and thinking, ‘Well, Gwynedd is clean; there’s nothing in Gwynedd. We’ll go over there.’ And there are anecdotes that that is happening. But, of course, to return to the testing issue, if we don’t know the level of this problem, we don’t know whether this is contributing to the problem or is this something we need to be thinking about. It is a problem that will happen in other parts of the UK as well, not just in Wales, and we need to look at that.

And just a final point, in terms of the testing, you have said that you are going to make some kind of pyramid of priorities, and I’m looking forward to seeing that. Healthcare workers, you’ve said, but their families as well. Of course, if there is a child showing the symptoms and you work in the health sector, you need to know whether you should continue to go to your workplace. So, I understand why you’re restricting the numbers that you’re going to test, but I am asking for a better explanation about how you’re going to be measuring the growth that is going to happen, unfortunately. Thank you.

Thank you, Siân Gwenllian, for those questions. It’s news to me about Ysgol Brynhyfryd, as I stand here now. What strikes me is that schools are in the same place such as the GPs and the pharmacies that we’ve talked about this afternoon. If the number of staff members in that context becomes excessive and that there is insufficient staff numbers to run the pharmacy or the GP surgery, well, they will have to close the door for a period of time to be able to reopen when the staff return.

In the short term, the guidelines are the same ones as the schools use in other emergencies such as snowfall. They are carrying on with what they do usually and, of course, there will be more guidelines issued as the time goes on. But in the short term, I am certain that people in the school, and in the local education authority, will be able to put measures in place to cope with what has occurred in the individual school. I acknowledge what Siân Gwenllian says about the more general guidelines, as things develop, and the Minister for Education will be able to respond to questions on such issues tomorrow and Thursday.

And I completely agree with what Siân Gwenllian said about ventilators. We are working across the United Kingdom, the whole of the United Kingdom, with Scotland and with people in Northern Ireland and in England, and we are making one unified effort. And it would be great to get any details about any companies that can assist and support us in this, and we are looking for others who can add to what they’re doing at present to manufacture more ventilators. We are also talking about other measures—the non-invasive ventilators, and the other items that the doctors can use. And as Siân Gwenllian said, we wish to increase the number of ventilators available, but also we must train people who have been doing completely different tasks within the hospitals so that they are able to use these ventilators too.

On testing, I've already said what I was going to say about why we have taken the approach that we have taken.

Public Health Wales continues to do its surveillance work of the disease across Wales. I think that Merthyr was another part of Wales that showed as having a very low incidence at this point in the surveillance effort. There are very sophisticated ways, Llywydd—well beyond my ability to explain—in which modelers are able to tell you the prevalence of the disease in a community from the number of people who are presenting for intensive care. There will be ratios that they can deduce from the evidence that they already have. They'll say, 'This number of people are presenting in intensive care. It means the prevalence in the community at community level is of this sort.' And all of that is going on. The change in the testing regime does not mean that there is no intelligence about what is happening at community level. But as I say, there is daily discussion as to whether or not that needs to be done differently or strengthened in other ways.

And I entirely understand the points that Siân Gwenllian made at the end about the family context in which clinical workers operate, and for that to be factored into the testing regime. There will be a circular—that I hope will be available today—that will go out to the NHS through the chief medial officer's office providing detail of how that regime is to be conducted.

Thank you for delivering the statement, First Minister, and may we wish the health Minister and his family all the best during this trying time? We also thank you for the lengths you are going to to keep us and the Welsh public updated during this pandemic.

Thank you again to all people helping—from NHS staff to the many volunteers that we depend upon so heavily. Also, I'd like to reiterate again my condolences to the family of the patient who sadly lost their life to this disease.

Minister, it is vital that we stand firm and united against this disease. The measures being put in place to curb the spread of this disease may be hard to swallow but are very necessary. We have to ensure this disease, which is highly contagious, is held in check as much as is humanly possible, because every day the situation regarding coronavirus changes. As the world goes into various stages of lockdown, we have to take a sensible approach, limit our exposure to people who are at greater risk of complications from the virus, and keep up with regular hand hygiene.

My party will support your efforts to limit our exposure to COVID-19. Our combined efforts are vital to prevent the spread of this disease and keeping it to a minimum. And if we are to keep the rate down, this is necessary. The actions we take, and the actions of the public at large, will help slow the spread of this disease and eventually help save lives.

We are entering a difficult time and it is more important than ever that we come together as a community. The actions outlined by the Prime Minister, our health Minister and our First Minister may be unpopular but are vitally important.

Minister, hand hygiene is as important as ever, but I have heard reports that schools have run out of soap and can't afford to restock. How is the Welsh Government ensuring that public services have sufficient stocks of hygiene equipment and, where absolutely necessary, personal protective equipment?

Throughout this trying time, we have to be as transparent as possible with the public for the reasons behind the actions we are taking. Minister, what consideration have you given to holding regular press conferences with public health officials and the chief medical officer to provide the public information and reassurance of the actions being taken to combat COVID-19?

The need to develop therapeutic treatments is of paramount importance. Minister, can you outline the actions being taken by public health colleagues across the UK, our higher education sector and the pharmaceutical industry to develop treatments while we await the outcome of vaccine trials?

Finally, Minister, the Herculean efforts of our health and social care workforce are to applauded. Without them putting themselves at risk our situation would be far worse. As this crisis deepens, what consideration have you given also to the use of volunteers within health and social care to carry out simpler tasks to allow clinical staff the time to focus on critical care?

Thank you again for your efforts and I will continue to work with you throughout this crisis. 

Llywydd, can I thank Caroline Jones for all the things she said in introducing her questions? I agree very much with the points that she made about the combined efforts that we will need to make across this Chamber and far more widely in facing the crisis that is upon us. 

In relation to her specific questions on the availability of hygiene equipment in schools, I discussed this this morning with the education Minister and steps are being taken to mobilise resources from other parts of the public sector to help where that is an issue. 

As far as regular press conferences are concerned, I agree that it is very important that those are fronted by a mixture of politicians who have the responsibility for making decisions but also those who provide the advice on which those decisions are taken. I want to put on record my thanks to the Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Dr Frank Atherton, who has been at his desk without a break now for a number of weeks, making sure that we get all the advice that is required. 

The development of treatments for coronavirus is an international effort, Llywydd, in which the UK is playing its part, because we need all the efforts of scientists and other experts, not simply in this country but elsewhere, to make the necessary breakthroughs as rapidly as possible. 

Finally, as far as other efforts are concerned, I left the Chamber a little earlier in proceedings, Llywydd, to go and meet the new head of the armed forces here in Wales. I received assurances from him about the willingness of armed forces in Wales to step into roles where their assistance may be needed over the weeks ahead. The emergency Bill, which Members here will have an opportunity to debate next week, will, I anticipate, include new powers that Welsh Ministers will be able to use to be able to accelerate the path into helping roles of people who, at this point, are not employed in those ways. 

Thank you, First Minister, for your statement. Can I place on record my thanks to everyone in Wales who is trying to keep our public services going against the backdrop of this illness? Many of my questions have been answered, but I did also want to ask about the issue of ventilators. Obviously, I heard your answer to Siân Gwenllian. I'm sure I won't have been the only one that was alarmed that we seem to be issuing a call to arms to the manufacturing sector to help us with the ventilator situation. I wonder if you could be a bit more specific about what kind of numbers we're looking at and what kind of assessment you've made of how much of a shortfall we have actually got in that area. 

I very much welcome what's been said about the move to testing all healthcare workers. I think that is crucial. I think it's vital that we have as soon as possible, though, clarity on the issue around children and other dependents of health workers. It would be very helpful if the circular that you referred to that is going out today could be shared with Assembly Members, because I've certainly had a number of queries from healthcare workers in my constituency. 

I wanted to ask about critical care beds. We'll have all watched with dismay the situation in Italy, but as I understand it, Italy has 12.5 critical care beds per 100,000 of the population, compared to 6.6 per 100,000 in England, and I'm not actually sure what the figure is in Wales. So, I'd like to ask what assessment you've made of the shortfall and what particular plans are in place to try and really boost that capacity now, when we really need it. Angela Burns referred to mental health: I think that is crucial, not just in terms of ensuring that people who have mental health problems—diagnosed mental illnesses—have got access to support, but also, I think, proactively, in terms of recognising that this is going to be a major mental health challenge for the whole country, really. I know there are lots of young people who are feeling incredibly anxious and people from all ages who are really feeling anxiety and who would benefit from a strong public health message in terms of how we all look after our mental health in relation to this crisis. Thank you.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

I thank Lynne Neagle for those questions. Llywydd, I won't attempt to provide a number, the specific numbers that Lynne asked for in relation to ventilators. The health Minister may well have had them; they're not in my recollection. But we can ask Vaughan to establish that. I'll certainly undertake to make sure that the circular, when it's published—that Members' attention is drawn to it and a link provided so everybody can access it.

As far as critical care is concerned, I don't for a minute want to underplay the very, very real pressures critical-care capacity will come under in this country. I think comparisons with other countries are often difficult, because definitions are different and the way in which beds are counted is different, but, when you set all that aside, there is no doubt at all that the pressure that we will come under will be very real indeed. The first thing we will do will be to mobilise the plans that health boards already have, which allow them to double the current number of critical care beds. When our colleague Vaughan Gething announced £15 million additional investment in critical-care capacity last year, there was a particular emphasis on critical-care outreach capacity. Because there are often patients who remain on an ordinary ward who are at the cusp of can they be looked after there—do they need critical care and critical-care outreach? Allowing those people to continue to be looked after in the ward that they are on was very much part of last year's plan, and will be part of the health service's planning, and more is being done to plan for the demand we know that there will be.

On mental health, I entirely agree with the points that Lynne Neagle has made. It's one of the reasons why we have been keen not to move rapidly to school closures, because we know that there are thousands of young people in our schools who rely on the health services that we have quite recently developed in our whole-school approach. And if we reach a point where schools are no longer able to open in the way that they do now, then as well as thinking about how we can respond to the needs of people who need free school meals, and how we will deal with children of people who are front-line workers and need to be in work, we also need to plan for providing for the mental health needs of those young people who are currently catered for in schools and may not be catered for in that way if schools have to shut. 

I've heard nobody around the Chamber argue for a precipitate move to school closure, and the issue is properly a very live one, but part of the reason for being keen for schools to continue as best they can for as long as they can is to give us all a chance to plan for the many needs that schools meet today and will have to be met in different ways if the current system doesn't continue as it now does.

Thank you. We have had speakers from all the parties now, so can I ask the remaining people that we call in this statement just to ask their questions, please? Janet Finch-Saunders.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, I'm trying to see which questions here have not already been asked; there are one or two. As you will be aware, with my remit—. And again thank you for showing leadership, and also to Vaughan Gething, and I hope he and his family come through this okay.

The issue—with my portfolio hat on now—I've had lots of contact from people still very concerned about the domiciliary care sector and what sort of support they're going to get in terms of the safeguarding equipment that they need to wear. Now, I did raise this last week, and it came up about the social care planning and response group. Homecare providers have been advised to review their list of clients and ensure that it is up to date, including levels of informal support available to individuals. So, what consideration has been given to information about individuals who are receiving care at home being shared with local partners, such as leaders of voluntary COVID-19 support groups?

You'll be aware, probably, First Minister, that social media can be quite a support tool in such a crisis, and lots and lots of people are coming forward, some with training, some without. They're really seeking a steer from me, as an Assembly Member, as to how they can join the dots together and make sure that this kind of help is actually used to its maximum benefit. So, if you could put a message out of support there—.

There are also people who are retired social care workers, who've been in touch to say, 'I'm happy to go back in and help where needed'. Again, it's an untapped resource, and it would be wise, I think, for us not to ignore it. Our older people's commissioner has said that Wales needed to be really creative to make sure every older person knows they have people who are looking out for them and who are in touch. She has met with the Welsh Government, Age Cymru and the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, so could you clarify what steps you are taking to help organisations identify and provide support to older people?

I've also been approached by children's day centres, playgroups and nurseries regarding advice and guidance, because they reckon they've received nothing in terms of, again, protective equipment and advice as to what they should do. They're all living, at the moment, as we all are, hour to hour, day by day, and they just want some kind of advice.

Also, a question I have for you, First Minister: in terms of testing, will there be any plans, going forward, to introduce self-testing kits at home?

Finally, I've had the chairman of the Llandudno Hospitality Association and other hoteliers, who—these are an army of volunteers used to food hygiene standards, used to—. They maintain that they could help, where needed, as volunteers, with bed changes, preparation of food. So, in such extraordinary times, will you look at all ways to engage with the business community that is so badly affected at the moment? But, despite worrying whether their business can continue, they are willing to rally to the charge to be of some service in their communities. So, again, if you could just respond to those—. Thank you.

Thank you very much for those questions. I think Janet Finch-Saunders is right to worry about the domiciliary care sector. I worry about it a lot, because we rely on it so much, and yet people who work in that field will be equally vulnerable to getting the virus, and the points that Janet made about providers being asked to review their lists and be sure that they can prioritise visits where they absolutely have to are part of this preparation.

An important point was made about information sharing. We're all familiar with the much stricter rules there are in recent times—general data protection regulation rules—that make public authorities nervous about information sharing in case they're in breach of some regulation. So, we intend to raise this through the UK-level discussions so that we can provide some assurances to public authorities that in these circumstances passing information to help somebody else to do the right thing will not rebound on them afterwards, and that's an important point made.

Through the Welsh Local Government Association, we anticipate very shortly that each local authority will become the focal point for local people who've been care workers in the past, or recently retired or moved to some other job, who are willing to come back into that workforce. The local authority—their local authority—will become the first point of contact, so that there is some sort of system put around people's willingness to respond in that way.

As I said in answering questions earlier, Dirprwy Lywydd, there is a meeting planned tomorrow with the WCVA, with county voluntary associations and others to try to harness all that effort that we know people are willing to make locally. I hadn't thought of hoteliers in quite the way that Janet described but she's right, of course, that they are people who have particular skills in looking after people in that context, and may be in a position to adapt those skills and help in others. So, again, thank you for making that point and I'll make sure that it's passed on. 

Nurseries—I believe there is advice available to nurseries. It's a dispersed sector; not everybody may know where to look for the advice that is available to them. But, again, across the United Kingdom, nurseries is one of those sectors where action will need to be taken to make sure that good providers doing really important work—and we've had a growth in providers in Wales through the childcare offer and so on—are still there after coronavirus, when their services will be needed again, whereas in the short run they may struggle because they rely on fee-paying parents whose children may not be turning up. So, there's work going on to try and make sure that the UK Treasury understands a short-term intervention to keep those businesses alive, because they're good businesses and viable businesses and we need them to be viable when all this is over. 

First Minister, I heard your answer to previous questions on testing, but I would like, if it's possible, to press you a little further on this. Many members of the public are very confused when they see yourself giving one proposition and then the World Health Organization providing a very different analysis. I've seen this afternoon that, across the border in England, a record 7,000 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours. We therefore have a very different regime emerging between not simply the Government here and other Governments in the United Kingdom, but a different regime here to what is being recommended by the World Health Organization.

So, it would be useful, I think, for us to understand why that is. Why do we have advice that is at variance with that which we assume is being received by Scottish and English Ministers? Are we speaking to the World Health Organization to understand why they're providing that advice to Governments across the whole world that are dealing with this? And can we ensure that we here have the very best advice available to us that is tested then against advice that is being provided to other Ministers in other Governments, not simply here in the United Kingdom, but right across Europe and the rest of the world? 

I think there are many of us who are somewhat bewildered why we don't seem to be putting a greater emphasis on testing, and then to ensure that, where testing does take place, if we are looking at key front-line personnel, that social services and carers are actually included as well. 

I thank the Member for those, Llywydd. I think I've said a couple of times this afternoon that we will be looking to expand, where we can, testing of key workers to include other groups. I entirely share Alun Davies's regret at the inevitable confusion that happens in the minds of the public where they hear different groups and different sources of expertise say different things. The World Health Organization provides advice for well over 100 countries, and the application of that advice will never be identical in any one place, because that advice has to be calibrated according to the circumstances of any one of those member countries. 

I can absolutely say that the meetings that take place between the four chief medical officers and the scientific advisers are informed by the World Health Organization, that they hear directly from them, that their advice is never given in ignorance of those sources of advice. I want the Welsh Government to be clear and unambiguous in this way, because I think that this is the best thing that I can do—to try to resist the confusion that I agree is regrettable—and that is this: the Welsh Government operates on the advice that we get from the people who are employed to give it to us, who understand Wales best, who understand the science best, and are therefore best placed to advise Government. Whatever other sources of advice there are, it's for them to filter that, it's for them to distil that, it's for them to say to Government the right course of action, and then Government must act on that advice.  

First Minister, thank you for your statement this afternoon. Could I endorse the comments from colleagues who have touched on the mental health aspect of this? We are literally seeing people's everyday lives, in whatever sphere of life they live, taken apart by this, and uniformity and regularity is one of the stabilising factors in most people's lives. Whilst I appreciate all the efforts that the NHS has dedicated to critical care provision at the moment and making bed provision, there will be a massive demand on the mental health provision services that are in this country. I do take comfort from you alluding to the fact of rural communities and the support that has been in place for rural communities through some of the tribulations over the last 20 years that they have gone through.

Two things I'd like to ask of you, if possible, please, First Minister. The first one is building on the point that Janet Finch-Saunders raised about people who might be able to help in the care sector. I've had various care homes over the last 48 hours come and point to the fact that their staffing numbers are diminishing by the day and, obviously, under the rules, staff have to be registered—and rightly so have to be registered—for it to be a safe environment. But there is scope, I would suggest, from the argument that's been put to me, of consideration being given to new registrations and working with the inspectorate to make sure the environment is in place so that care home providers can work in a new environment to get registrations through and deal with the circumstances they face at the moment and in the coming weeks, which are unique circumstances. I'd be grateful to understand has any progress been made on that.

The second—and I appreciate you might not be able to give me an answer at the moment, and in the scheme of what you're dealing with at the moment it almost seems an irrelevance, but given that operations have been cancelled, normal operations, everyday operations have been cancelled, it's not unreasonable for people who have approached myself and many other Assembly Members to try and understand when an element of operations that we would class as normal might be reintroduced into the NHS. As we stand here today, that seems a very distant prospect, that does. I see England have just joined the same regime as Wales announced on Friday. But it's not an unreasonable request for constituents coming to Assembly Members to try and understand when that long-awaited operation that they've been waiting for to take them out of pain and put them on the road to recovery might—might—be factored into the NHS going forward. It might be six months; it might be three months; it might even be 12 months, but some sense of when we might be able to inform constituents of that normalisation would be appreciated.

I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for all of those questions and entirely agree with what he said about mental health. It isn't simply that lives have been turned upside down, but they've been turned upside down in an entirely unforeseeable way and at a speed that nobody could have anticipated. So, people who had perfectly stable and successful lives only a couple of weeks ago are staring down the barrel of real difficulties. I think both of those things—the fact that you couldn't plan for it, and it hit you at such speed—will make the impact on people's well-being very real. There are things that we can learn and want to learn from experiences even as long ago as 20 years ago in the foot-and-mouth crisis. I've been talking to the former First Minister today about some of his experiences at that time and what we might still be able to draw from that in helping people to get their lives back on an even keel.

The emergency Bill to be published later this week will provide ways in which we can have a more flexible approach to registration and regulation so we can accelerate people back into the workplace where that is the right thing to do. In the back of your mind, even in an emergency, we have to remember that there are very vulnerable people in these settings and that safeguarding isn't something that you can just entirely take off the table. So, there will still have to be some ways in making sure that people who are coming forward to help are the sort of people who you'd be happy to see in that capacity. But the system will, I think, be much slimmed down and designed to try and get people in to do the jobs that they want to do.

I entirely understand, of course, that people will want to know when the world will begin to get back to normal, including the operation of the health service. I'm afraid I can't offer anything like a date or even a time frame this afternoon that would be helpful to people. So far, my experience is that people are incredibly understanding of the need for people with more urgent needs to come in front of them. What I can say is that as soon as we see this curve that we expect come over the top and begin to come down the other side, and we're able to offer people reliable indications of how the system might be able to get back to where it was before, then of course we will be very keen to do that. 

I think most of the questions that I wanted to ask have now been answered, bar one: around testing, again, First Minister. But hopefully, this is not one that you've already dealt with. It is in relation to residential and care home settings. I've been asked to raise this in particular: whether there has been a particular decision not to routinely test in care and residential settings. Because virtually all of the people that are in there are in the high risk and vulnerable category and the scope to self-isolate if anybody contracts the virus in those settings is very, very limited. So, we would need to plan quite early for anybody within one of those settings having the virus and managing that condition. Are there any plans to look at routinely testing in those settings? And if not, why not? Because we do need to know how we're going to manage the situation should it arise.

I thank Dawn Bowden for that question. I absolutely recognise that many of us here, certainly me included, have relatives who are very close to us living in those settings. So, I entirely understand the point. Dirprwy Lywydd, I hope I've been able to answer, at least in part, most of the questions Members have raised. I don't have an answer immediately in front of me as to the testing regime in residential care homes. Vaughan may well have known it, but I will get an answer, make sure the Member has it, and then circulate it more widely, because I think it will be of interest to more than just a few of us here.

I have three more Members. I will extend this, but I am not anxious to extend it too long. So, again, I will ask you for brevity. Mark Isherwood.

Diolch, Llywydd. Dirprwy, not Llywydd. Sorry. [Laughter.] Okay.

You carry on, Mark.

Firstly, on behalf of some parents who are self-isolating because their children have underlying conditions, they've said, 'Although we've been told by the chief medical officer that children are relatively spared, what advice would you give to parents of children with underlying health conditions under the current circumstances?'

The second issue, on behalf of pregnant women—clearly, they've been told to stay at home. That includes my daughters, three of them, currently pregnant. What provision is being made for the moment that the birth starts happening? We've got one due in 10 days. What assurances do my daughters and the thousands of other women in the same position have that, when they go into labour, they're going to be safe when they go into hospital?

I was contacted by constituents in Flintshire, 70-plus-year-olds, 'My wife and I can't register with the pharmacy to have our repeat prescriptions delivered seamlessly from GP to pharmacy like they can in England under the electronic prescription service, because it's not available in Wales.' Something needs to be done about this quickly, as people who are over 70 are presumably going to be required to self-isolate.

In terms of prescriptions overseas, another one of my daughters has an underlying condition. She is currently on lockdown in Spain, but she is one of thousands of others. What provision is being made to ensure that those people, like her, who need repeat prescriptions can access them?

A couple more questions put to me by constituents today: 'How is the Welsh Government prioritising testing for NHS staff, not just symptomatic healthcare workers in isolation, so that they can know whether they can go to work with a clear conscience?' That was the parent of two healthcare workers who've got coughs and are at home, but don't know if they're actually able to go in and help at work. A local councillor today contacted me, 'I'm reliably informed emergency staff are not getting the right personal protection equipment to deal with the virus.' Again, I wonder if you provide a response for that local councillor? Thank you. 

Look, I am reluctant to provide answers that may not be accurate and reliable. My understanding is that the advice for pupils who have underlying health conditions is quite clear: they should stay at home. Services for women in pregnancy: as I understand it, the advice to them is that they should self-isolate, but when they have appointments with the health service, they should keep them. They shouldn't not carry on with the care that they would normally expect to have during pregnancy. They should attend those appointments, they should make sure that they are as well prepared for those events as they can be, but outside that they should have as much social distancing as they can manage. 

On pharmacies, I don't, I'm afraid, have answers on either of those points, but I will try and get an answer, particularly on the overseas issue. The testing issue I think will be set out in the circular that I referred to this afternoon. The information I have is that, while there are some inevitable local glitches in the distribution of personal protective equipment, the system is working, it is happening, and where there are some difficulties, they are genuinely local in character.

Very briefly, there are big changes in the size of populations in parts of Wales, particularly in my constituency, from one year to the next, and that's partly because of the number of people who stay in second homes at certain parts of the year. Given the restricted number of acute care beds in certain parts of Wales, including in Ysbyty Gwynedd, for example, and considering the restrictions on unnecessary travel at this time, what guidelines are the Government intending to give in order to avoid a situation where people rush to use their second homes? There's going to be pressure, of course, on our services anyway.

I have heard this point raised before, but a number of people living in Wales at the moment are moving to stay with their families in England as well. So, it's a two-way street. I haven't heard anything as yet from the health boards saying that that problem will have an impact on the services that they provide, but if we discover that such an issue does arise, then the system within Welsh Government will be able to respond to that.

Just two from me. Thank you for confirming that children with underlying conditions should stay at home if at all possible. I don't want to ask you about schools generally, of course, but for some special schools that's the only kind of child that they have there, so is there any specific advice on special schools where only children with learning disabilities or underlying conditions attend?

And then secondly, is there any information available at the moment that will help us reassess the re-infection possibilities of COVID-19? What happens in those circumstances where somebody has self-isolated, hasn't been tested, feels well enough to go back to work, but is then again not tested? As we don't know whether this is—. Well, there will be the two spikes that you referred to in questions earlier today. What are we doing if we're not testing the population level to ensure that re-infection isn't a genuine concern?

Thanks, Suzy Davies, for both of those points. I discussed special schools as well earlier this morning. Where there are pupils in special schools, and there will certainly be a greater concentration of students there who have underlying health conditions, those students should not be in school. But there are many other pupils who attend special schools who don't have those conditions, and it is very important that those families go on having the support that special schools provide to them. So, our general approach is that the decision must be made on the basis of the child and not the setting. We certainly do not have advice of any general nature to special schools in Wales that they should be closing down because of coronavirus.

As to re-infection, we are learning about this from across the world, as to rates of re-infection and the vulnerability of people who've had the disease once to getting it again. What will this virus be like? It's not a virus we know. Will it behave like other sorts of viruses that we build up an immunity to, or will it behave in any different sorts of ways? So, it's an important point that Suzy Davies makes and, at this point, as I understand it, we are benefiting from information and advice that we're getting from other parts of the world that are further down the path of coronavirus than we are, and then preparing for what we may experience here, there being no guarantee, I don't think, Dirprwy Lywydd, that the experience in one part of the world will be identically replicated elsewhere.

Thank you very much, First Minister.