Safe mask wearing is an important factor. That includes the taking on and taking off of masks as well, and there is a real challenge, not just in what sort of covering to wear, but to remind ourselves that when you take off the face covering, if you have COVID, you're likely to shed it around you. When you put it on, there's also a potential for that to take place as well. This is difficult, but it's really important for all of us, and I think elected Members will need to set the sort of example we want the public to follow.

In schools, we've published clear advice from our technical advisory group, and that has allowed local authorities and schools to already make decisions about face coverings in areas of their schools where it is not possible for social distancing to be enforced. We know different school estates have different challenges.

Our approach to the use of local coronavirus restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19 is set out in the 'Coronavirus Control Plan for Wales'. And I would gently say to Welsh Conservative Members that they risk making themselves look rather foolish in going back to comments made by the finance Minister at the end of May, when we were exiting lockdown, as opposed to the fact that more than three months later we've published a coronavirus control plan, setting out clear criteria for us to take local action, exactly as we have done already in two local authority areas.

In Wales, we have a well-established system for bringing together all relevant local agencies through our incident management teams and outbreak control teams. We also have a high-performing test, trace, protect service to support that process. That has enabled us to identify and understand clusters of cases quickly and to take targeted and specific action, for example, around a particular workplace or setting. So, that acts as a smart lockdown process, and I remind Members again that when we saw significant increases in Anglesey, in Wrexham, in Merthyr, significant testing in areas of Blaenau Gwent and around the country, that was because of the intelligence we had and our ability to rapidly deploy testing resources where they were needed to understand the coronavirus spread that was taking place, and not to then have to take more significant community-wide action. That is still the way that we want to act. But where we're seeing wider community transmission within areas, we've introduced measures to address areas specific.

None of us want to see a return to the lockdown position that we faced in March. We're all doing all we can to avoid more extreme actions across the whole of Wales, but we do need to understand the context. Other UK nations are seeing a rise again in coronavirus, and similarly other nations across Europe. The reality is it may not be possible to avoid national measures. That is why I say again, the Government and our health service will do our part; it is important the public all recognise that we each have a contribution to make.

On Friday last week, the technical advisory group provided advice on the testing of travellers and it was published. That recommends that we work across the UK between all four nations to enable access to testing for people travelling from countries with a higher prevalence of COVID-19. It of course recognises that most people travelling internationally from Wales will do so through routes other than Cardiff. As the First Minister said yesterday, and I've said previously before, there are practical questions to resolve about testing in Cardiff Airport. It's my clear preference to be able to do so. However, we need to make sure that we don't bunch passengers together and that we have clear expectations about how long people may need to stay within the airport setting; that we don't mix passenger groups from different flights—many of us are used to being in the same area to collect baggage as people from different flights—and that we have clear segregation of flights that we may want to test; and that there is space within the airport estate for testing itself.

In practice, we have already regularly tested people once they are at home from flights from Zante, with very high levels of compliance, and that has enabled us to understand the spread of coronavirus on those flights and in those locations. Even when foreign travel does bring cases into Wales, it is largely the behaviour of people whilst they've been on holiday that has put others at risk, including fellow passengers on aeroplanes. Testing at day 1 and day 8 is not an alternative to quarantine. We will continue to review and refine our approach to reflect the changes in the way the virus spreads in Wales; our understanding of which interventions work best; how we as individuals, families and communities respond; and any developments in scientific evidence. So, we must be prepared to shift our position if the evidence suggests there are different courses of action that we should take.

We're acutely aware of the challenges posed by delays in testing from lighthouse labs. We've been pressing the UK Government to resolve the issues as soon as possible. I've written to and spoken with the UK health Secretary on this directly, and it's also clear to me that challenges and questions about prioritising capacity for Wales should be made with us, not to us. Welsh laboratory capacity is already being used for rapid deployment to outbreaks and incidents and for NHS Wales. We're working urgently with Public Health Wales and our NHS on using and prioritising the use of Welsh lab capacity as we see pressure and demand rising both here and across the UK.

I recently announced added funding of £32 million to speed up turnaround times for Public Health Wales laboratories and to provide extra capacity. This will pay for extra staff and equipment and for Public Health Wales to run regional laboratories at the University Hospital of Wales, Singleton and Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. They will then operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and those operations are expected from October. It will also enable the creation of six hot labs at acute hospital sites across Wales with under-four-hour testing equipment. They will operate seven days a week from November.

In concluding, Deputy Presiding Officer, we will continue to take the advice of our scientists and play an active part in discussions with colleagues across the UK to implement solutions that provide the best opportunity to suppress the virus across Wales and to save as many lives as possible. All of us have a role and it's up to all of us to work together to keep Wales safe.