COVID-19 in Hospitals

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 3 November 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:27, 3 November 2020

Well, Llywydd, I ought to make it clear to Members that it was not my advice that the Member was quoting; she was quoting the advice of the Chief Medical Officer for Wales in the letter that he has sent to all 130,000 people who were on the shielding list, and he provides them with the best clinical advice that he is able to provide to them. 

I know that Leanne Wood will well recognise the mental health impact of shielding as well. This is one of the things that we were told very powerfully by the shielded population earlier in the year during that long period when we asked them not to go to work, not to go out shopping, not to leave their homes for exercise. The message back from them was that that had a profound impact, in many cases, on people's sense of mental health and well-being. And all of that is summed up in the advice that the chief medical officer provides to people, trying to balance the different harms that come from asking people to live their lives in that highly restricted way.

But I do agree with Leanne Wood about the points that she makes about people who are in work when they are highly vulnerable. I think the letter deals with that in a more sensitive way than maybe she has implied, but I am happy to say to her that that is an issue that we will keep under review, and if there is better advice that can be provided to people and to employers about the way in which they respond to people who are of that age and who are clinically vulnerable—the way that they are protected in the workplace—then of course we're very pleased to go on doing that.