1. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 5 August 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:42, 5 August 2020

Well, Llywydd, I want to be clear that actions have already been taken at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital. The position has stabilised, as I said in my statement. There were 76 cases in the previous seven days, and that had fallen to 27 in the last seven days—a 64 per cent fall. Across Wrexham, the incidence rate, which on 26 July was 61.8 per 100,000, has fallen to 19.9 in the last seven days, and continues to fall. So, the position in Wrexham has been significantly brought under control, and continues to improve, and that is because of the actions that the hospital itself has taken—mandating use of face masks, new physical screening installed, a single point of entry for the public, and testing of all patients on arrival, by whatever route they arrive at the hospital. When those patients are screened, those who are suspected of having coronavirus are transferred to a side room on a COVID-positive ward and are nursed by a separate nursing team. Those with no symptoms are cohorted until swab results are available. Patients with a positive result are placed on a COVID-positive ward, and patients with a negative result are transferred to general bed use. As far as staff are concerned, all staff at the Maelor hospital are being tested. Six hundred of those tests are already booked. Staff are restricted in movements across the hospital, agency staff are restricted to particular wards, and thousands of additional items of PPE have been provided at the hospital—a comprehensive suite of measures, with more measures being added every day, and, Llywydd, as I said, the success of those measures is already evident.