Track and Trace

Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 8 July 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:38, 8 July 2020

It's a matter of concern. It's been raised in previous questions, not just here, but outside as well, about the need to see a further improvement in the speed of test returns, because it does then mean we should have an even more effective contact tracing service and system, and the individual instances—it doesn't matter whether they're a relatively small minority in percentage terms—they all represent a risk factor for the individual and for their contacts. That's why there's a range of improvement action already under way. Rather than explaining away why it doesn't matter, it does matter, and that's why we need to see more efficiency in the lab process as well as couriering and making sure that more and more people get their results promptly. Because, actually, our contact tracing service are doing a very good job of following up those contacts when they're provided by people who've had a positive case, and we need to have people to continue to positively buy in to the contact tracing service so they don't feel they're being told to self-isolate unnecessarily, as that may affect people's willingness to continue to self-isolate in the future, and that's important for all of us, whether we know those people or not, to help keep Wales safe.