The World Health Organization states that lockdown should only be used as a last resort and should be avoided. The harms that these measures will cause to people's health, wealth and well-being will be severe, and we are seeing a staggering number of businesses fail, countless numbers of people being put out of work, huge numbers of young people unable to find work, and children having their education stymied. Many of my constituents are already living in poverty. And this lockdown has been for what? You know that this lockdwon will not end the threat posed by SARS-CoV-2 virus. If everyone wore a mask, kept 2m apart and washed their hands regularly, this disease wouldn't be on the rise. If everyone stuck to these rules, we could learn to live with this disease. But people are not sticking to the rules and because of the actions of a selfish few people, we are all put at risk.

With regard to testing, why are we still only testing less then a third of 1 per cent of our population for this virus? We need to be more ambitious with regard to testing. Slovakia, a country with a population almost double ours, tested half their population on Saturday and we conducted just over 7,000 tests. To beat this virus in a way that does not do long-term damage to our health and well-being, we have to learn to live with this disease. Population-wide testing, I still feel, is the best way forward and we can ensure that those who test positive are properly quarantined and receive all the support that they need, instead of locking up everybody. We could use the finances being used to fund lockdowns and business closures to pay the sick to stay at home. That is how we deal with and live with this disease.

I agree that we have to do all we can to stop people from dying from COVID or having to live with long-term disablement as a result, but this is not the way. And I have previously supported the lockdown with the previous Government, but now is the time that we must find an alternative. Our economy will suffer and those in generations to come will still be paying for it. Diolch yn fawr.