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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:14 pm on 29 April 2020.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 3:14, 29 April 2020

Thank you for that response. I move to three brief and distinct questions around the area of testing. The Government's document, 'Leading Wales out of the coronavirus pandemic: a framework for recovery', quite rightly calls for effective case identification and contact tracing when we move to relaxing restrictions, but we still have no clear plan for achieving that effectiveness. Roughly how many tests per day will we need to be carrying out in Wales to be effective in this key element of battling coronavirus? Government may, of course, have a plan and it's not being communicated with us; briefings are very useful in that respect. Can the Minister tell us if it's true that the chair of Public Health Wales asked to be able to brief opposition party leaders, but that she was told she couldn't? And, finally, questions have been raised already in the session today about the decision not to broaden testing to all care home residents and staff. We've been told multiple times this afternoon that you don't believe, as a Government, that this is a good use of resources, but let me just remind you: by now, we were meant to be testing 9,000 a day. We have a capacity now, we're told by the First Minister, of 2,100 per day; yesterday, we tested 734. So, isn't the truth of the matter that (a) we still don't have the capacity and (b) we're still not identifying enough people to be tested in this war against coronavirus?