Given that Wales has traditionally been reliant on supplies from China and other Asian countries, it is vital that we support manufacturers in Wales to develop our own homegrown supply. We therefore recommended that the Welsh Government review its own systems to ensure that the mechanisms are in place to enable manufacturers in Wales to respond quickly in supplying appropriate PPE in the event of any future outbreaks. That's recommendation 2. In accepting this recommendation, the Minister acknowledged the important role of Welsh businesses in strengthening our resilience to withstand a second peak of COVID-19, and said that the PPE procurement plan for health and social care will blend local manufacture and international supply.

Now, in turning to care homes, testing in care homes proved to be a controversial issue, with both the UK and Welsh Governments coming under criticism, as we know, for lack of testing in care settings. The Office for National Statistics figures show that there had been 663 COVID-19 deaths in Welsh cares homes.

According to Care Forum Wales, the practice of discharging hospital patients to care homes played a major role in enabling the infection to spread at such an alarming rate in care homes. The Older People's Commissioner for Wales said that she had concerns that older people’s rights may not have been sufficiently protected. The number of COVID-related deaths in care homes was a source of great concern to us. We believe that the Welsh Government’s initial attitude in terms of testing in care homes was deficient at the outset and their response was too slow thereafter. As a result, the number of deaths in care homes accounted for 28 per cent of all coronavirus-related deaths in Wales.

Recommendation 9 in our report called for the Welsh Government to ensure that all patients being discharged from hospital directly into a care home have been tested, in accordance with latest best practice, in order to ensure that residents and staff have maximum protection. This recommendation was accepted in principle. The Minister said that there had to be test results available before patients could be discharged from hospitals. I'd like to thank the Minister for this reassurance and for accepting our recommendation.

In turning to test, trace and protect finally, before I finish this first part, I'd like to talk about the test, trace and protect strategy—the contact tracing system of the Welsh Government. The test and trace programme under the strategy has a number of key purposes, including: diagnosing the disease; population health surveillance; contact tracing; and business continuity, enabling key workers to return to work more quickly and more safely.

A number of witnesses have highlighted the importance of the timely return of test results to secure the success of the TTP strategy. As Sir David King, a member of Independent SAGE told us,

'the turnaround time after testing is critically important. If you get the test result five days after the test is made, and that person is still wandering around in their community, imagine the number of people infected during that period.'

We agree that the speed of testing, the turnaround of testing results, and the accuracy of those results will be critical to the success of the TTP strategy. The longer the end-to-end turnaround time, from sample collection to the reporting of results to individuals, the greater the delay at the point when the disease is most infectious, or the greater the likelihood of—[Inaudible.]—.

[Inaudible.]—recommend therefore that the Welsh Government, working with Public Health Wales, should seek to ensure that every test result is returned within 24 hours. That is recommendation 19, and that recommendation was also accepted in principle.

We also heard that public support would be crucial to the success of the strategy. People must be willing to be honest in sharing details about their movements and their contacts, and to self-isolate if they are at risk for the benefit of the wider community. We recommended, therefore, that the Government, working with its partners, should ensure that they present clear public messaging and to rehearse those consistently at a local and national level, highlighting individual's responsibility to self-isolate, if they have symptoms, and the importance of seeking a test immediately. That's recommendation 25, and that was accepted.

Of course, if contact tracing is successful, people could be asked to self-isolate multiple times and this is a particular worry for people in low-paid employment who cannot afford to take time off work. According to the current guidance, anyone who is self-isolating is entitled to statutory sick pay, which is £95 a week, but this is not a sustainable wage or a living wage. The temptation to ignore symptoms and advice and to attend work is therefore a very real concern, and it's an area that requires urgent attention from the Welsh Government, particularly given that arrangements for statutory sick pay are not devolved. We've therefore called on the Welsh Government, as a matter of urgency, to pursue with the UK Government the arrangements for statutory sick pay for social care workers and others in Wales who do have to self-isolate. I welcome the fact that the Minister has accepted this recommendation and his assurance that he continues to raise concerns with UK Ministers about the financial impact of self-isolation. 

In closing, I would like to acknowledge that the scale of the challenge facing Governments and their partners in dealing with the effects of COVID-19 has been unprecedented. Enormous efforts have been made across the board, resulting in many significant achievements. Unfortunately, infection rates are on the rise once again. We must use the experience that we have and everything that we learnt in battling the first wave of the disease to ensure that any new measures introduced to control the virus are effective, timely and proportionate. Thank you very much.