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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:44 pm on 29 April 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:44, 29 April 2020

Well, as the Member has heard on a regular basis throughout not just this afternoon but on a number of other occasions, the evidence we currently have does not support general testing of people who are asymptomatic. If that evidence base changes and under specific circumstances or generally, then I'll be happy to shift the position of myself and the Government. And it's really important that we don't try to set out that there is a counsel of perfection that is available in one part of our system or another, because we'll continue to learn; we'll know more about coronavirus next week than we do this week. We'll have more evidence to base our choices on, and we may need to change the way that we deliver different services. I think if Ministers got ourselves into a position where we refuse to concede, refuse to acknowledge that there could be different, other evidence available in the future and we may make different choices, well, that would be doing entirely the wrong thing for the public.

So, I will continue to take responsibility for the whole system, for choices that I make, for the way that I give direction and the leadership that I give right across health and social care. If we do change what we are going to do, then I will expect not just to recognise that but to explain that, and to explain what we are doing and what the basis for that next choice is. And that, I think, is the sort of responsible leadership that all of us are entitled to expect not just from me, but from other people in their own leadership roles right across our health and social care sector.