4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:06 pm on 22 September 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:06, 22 September 2020

On the final point, I think I've addressed that before, and we are considering the potential for table service and 10 o'clock closure on licensed premises. We're also considering off-licence sales as well.

On the six-month indication that the UK Government have given for England, well, the challenge is that, I guess, in planning terms, if we could predict that it would take six months to reach a different point, that would be useful for people to plan for. The challenge is we can't be certain about the course of the pandemic. What we can be clear about is that the autumn and the winter will be particularly difficult, and until we get to the point of having either a more effective antiviral treatment or a vaccine, then we're likely to have to live with a real challenge and the level of interventions we're going to need to take to keep us all safe and well. So, we'll continue to talk through this period of time, through the autumn and the winter, but I can't give a definitive guarantee about the length of time that other measures may be needed. But we're considering whether we need all-Wales not just messages, but all-Wales action, and we'll continue to review the case and report openly as soon as we're able to do so.

On school testing, this is partly about the challenge in the capacity of lighthouse labs, and it's one of the factors that have meant that lighthouse labs aren't able to cope with the capacity that was coming in and why tests have been restricted. As we saw in Scotland, there's a significant bump in the requirements for tests—people going for a test when the school year starts. That's happened with the return to school in England and Wales; that's one of the factors that have caused the problem that means that lighthouse labs aren't currently able to cope with the same volume of testing.

The challenge then, though, is about, if and when those issues are resolved, whether we want to prioritise school groups for testing, and I'm afraid the advice we've been given by our technical advisory group doesn't support testing whole school-year groups or whole school classes that are out of the school classroom. That's partly because of the time that it takes for coronavirus to develop—'If you're close enough you're going to get it' isn't as neat and as simple as, 'Take a test, you're fine to go back.' That's why there's a 14-day isolation period. It's why we needed to test people twice who have returned from hotspots from abroad as well. So, whilst the idea may sound appealing, actually the science doesn't support that being the right sort of intervention at present, but, as ever, we'll learn more about the science and the evidence, and that may well change the course of choices that we make to help keep Wales safe.