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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:15 pm on 29 April 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:15, 29 April 2020

I'll happily deal with those three areas. The first is probably the easiest. There is absolutely no instruction to the chair of Public Health Wales that she can't brief opposition party leaders. We're providing a huge amount of information on a daily basis and, indeed, there are regular briefings that I provide to the official opposition spokesperson and Rhun ap Iorwerth in his role for Plaid Cymru. So, we've been very open from the outset about what we're doing as a Government, including where there's disagreement about what we're doing. So, I'd be disappointed if anyone was trying to suggest there's been an attempt to try to prevent information being provided to elected representatives, when that is the very opposite of what we have been doing.

On testing in care homes, we're going through the issues that have been raised before. The point about our plan for the future is it's part of a broader plan about the testing strategy being part of the underpinning for what we do about recovery, moving out of lockdown. How do we get there? What does a proper public health surveillance system look like? We are working through that, and, of course, when I'm in a position to do so, I'd be happy to discuss that with Assembly Members.

The point about where we are on testing is, following the review that I ordered, I've been really upfront about the facts; I provide a weekly update on where we are in our testing capacity. I expect that to increase each week, and we then need to understand what does that mean in terms of the measures that we may want to take to move out of lockdown and the capacity we think we may need. It's important to see that as part of a whole, rather than having a plan for testing that isn't linked in to what we actually want to use that testing for, because our current capacity is enough for the current purpose of testing—for critical workers whilst we are in lockdown.

But, as I have said on a regular basis, we will need a bigger testing infrastructure, in terms of the ease of access for people to use that testing infrastructure, as we approach the end of lockdown, even if we're moving in those cautious steps that we've advocated, that we've said that we want to try to move forward with, and that remains the position. I'll continue to provide that weekly statement, that weekly update, and I'll continue to be happy to deal with Members' questions on where we are, and, when we're in a position to have that wider plan, then, of course, you'll hear about it.