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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:43 pm on 22 September 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:43, 22 September 2020

I welcome the comment. I thank the Member for his constructive engagement, not just in this place, but outside it as well. I have spent lots of time speaking to local authority leaders and I expect to join a call with 10 different local authority leaders after this session is finished. 

When it comes to the four-nation engagement, we have again made the point this morning that a regular and reliable rhythm to our engagement is in all of our interests. As we're approaching another phase, where coronavirus is increasing, the value of the consistency of our message becomes ever greater. We think it would have been helpful through the summer as well. But we're in a better place now, we welcome the fact that a COBRA meeting has taken place and I want to see more of these on a regular basis, so we don't need to wonder about what is happening or see things being briefed to the newspapers before we have meetings about them. That is in all of our interests to make sure that happens on a regular basis. 

I'll come back to you later this week with confirmed details. I'm waiting for not just the site but all the arrangements to be in place, and I'll make sure that constituency and regional Members are aware of when the Bridgend testing site is available and where it will be. And that is about having local testing for local people. Part of the challenge this morning for the UK programme was they've actually tried to introduce a fix to make sure that you can't book a test more than 50 miles away from where you live. We need to make sure that's 50 miles by travel, not as the crow flies, because, as we've seen, people living in Weston-super-Mare have been directed to testing centres in south Wales and that's particularly unhelpful.

On pub restrictions, I'm considering the point you raise, and I mentioned earlier about table service and a 10 o'clock finish time, and we're also reviewing the evidence on face coverings. Just a warning about that though: obviously you can't drink while you're wearing a face covering or eat, but the challenge about putting on and taking off the face covering is part of the concern. Taking off a face covering and putting it on are times when you may actually be shedding part of the virus, so we need to consider whether the evidence supports that being more likely to spread the coronavirus rather than lead to a benefit. But that review is being undertaken.