3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Coronavirus (COVID-19) update

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:14 pm on 17 March 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 5:14, 17 March 2020

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.