Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:42 pm on 16 September 2020.
Thank you for the statement. I just want to add to some of the points that have already been made and ask for assurances on a number of different fronts. Firstly, on communication, could you explain how Government, working with the local authority, will increase the level of communication locally in Rhondda Cynon Taf, in this instance, and in other areas affected, because it's clear that the messages are still getting lost? Even six months into the pandemic, there are some basic messages still being lost.
Another element of communication that I'd be keen to see is on informing people when exactly they should be seeking a test, because people are erring on the side of caution. And that's a good thing; we want people who perhaps need a test to make sure that they get one. But, if there's a better way of communicating, in order to remove those people who perhaps have some symptoms but they're not really COVID symptoms, to not get involved in the wait for testing and so on, that would be very, very useful at this time. I've found it myself difficult sometimes to pin down the definition of new, persistent coughs and so on. So, communication on that would be good.
Enforcement—I'd like assurances on enforcement. How do you make sure that those pubs where people are still allowed to congregate are properly policed, that local authorities have the powers and the resources to police them in order to make sure that people are having to stick the rules?
Limiting contact is another thing that I'd like assurances on. When do you make the call that keeping a pub open until 11.00 p.m. isn't acceptable, that you have to take away more opportunities for people to mix? Because it's been shown, hasn't it, that those places can be risky. And, of course, if you do have to close places down, we need those assurances about assistance for those businesses.
And, finally, on testing, can we have more assurances on how we will know that we need—the capacity that we must have within our communities from lighthouse labs and the UK-run systems? Because Independent SAGE said months ago:
'There is an urgent need to plan for migration of testing back from the...Lighthouse laboratories into a more integrated..."normalisation" of such increased capacity across our existing PHE/NHS laboratories'.
You as a Government did the opposite. I feel we're paying the price for that now. We need assurances that we will have the tests that we need over the winter period.