COVID-19: Contact Tracing

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 20 May 2020.

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Photo of Delyth Jewell Delyth Jewell Plaid Cymru 2:25, 20 May 2020

Thank you for that response, Minister. It's widely accepted that the most important part of any strategy to tackle COVID-19 is the test, track and trace aspect. Put simply, we have to have that kind of test and track regime in place before we can consider any substantial lifting of the current restrictions. I'm sure you'll agree with me on that. 

Now, on Monday, I was really pleased to see Ceredigion council publish its own coronavirus adjustment plan for the county, which is looking to the next phase. Now, that plan includes details of their already operational contact-tracing system. I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Ceredigion for being at the forefront of these efforts, and I'd like to invite you, Minister, to do the same and offer to consider how the Ceredigion model could be used as an example to boost best practice in other areas. 

Now, Minister, local authorities are, of course, identified as having a key role in the successful delivery of your Government's test, trace and protect plan, but they do still await details at a national level from the Welsh Government about how contact tracing will operate on the ground across Wales and, crucially, what resources and support—particularly financial support—is going to be available to local authorities. Lots of the now invaluable public protection expertise within local authorities might have been lost through austerity, so I'd welcome your thoughts on how we can ensure that we come back from anything that's been lost in that regard.

Finally, just some specific questions to you, Minister. Could you update the Senedd, please, on how many people you envisage will be required to undertake contact tracing work across Wales? How many people have already been allocated to these roles, whether they are going to be taken from the existing local authority workforce or whether there is external recruitment that has been undertaken to add to this? What timescales will be involved would also be good for us to know. And, in terms of the technical resource to support the work of human contact tracers on the ground, is the Welsh Government recommending the use of a single app for local authorities and others, and could you give us details of that, please? Thank you.