Covid-19

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 11:39 am on 24 June 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 11:39, 24 June 2020

Well, let me begin, Llywydd, by agreeing with David Rowlands—it's very important to learn from the experience that we are having, and we are doing our very best to do that every single day as we think over the events of recent weeks and plan for the challenges that lie ahead. But I do want to explain to him—and I know that he is likely to understand—that the Welsh Government is absolutely flat out still in dealing with the crisis that is in front of us, just this week dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus in north Wales, looking at the impact on the meat processing sector more generally, continuing to make sure that we provide testing in our care home sector, that we look at further opportunities we may be able to offer people in Wales to resume freedoms that they've been denied during the crisis. All the people we have—and the huge majority of Welsh Government employees are not working in the normal way; they are still working from home—are being deployed still to focus on the immediate challenges we face to prepare for the coming autumn and winter. The moment will come, as David Rowlands said, where there will be an opportunity to stand back and do a formal review of these things. Informally, we learn all the time and apply that learning, but until we are in calmer waters, where we are not every day having to deal with the impact of this crisis in the lives of Welsh people and Welsh communities, that moment has not yet come.