5. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve public health in South Wales Central further to the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ55781

There are a wide range of well-established public health programmes. These are unprecedented times and sadly COVID-19 has a disproportionate impact on older people, those with underlying health conditions and, indeed, on people from black and Asian origin backgrounds. The safety and protection of the public is a key priority, and we are of course being guided by the latest scientific evidence and medical advice.

Thanks, for that response, Minister. Can I make a plea at this stage of the crisis on health grounds for gyms? Gyms are vital to many people's physical health and mental well-being, so there is a strong case that gyms could be designated as being for essential use, and I would urge your Government to take that course of action. During some periods of the recent crisis, gyms have been allowed to stay open in the rest of the UK, but here in Wales they have been forced to close, despite adhering to social distancing rules. I know that isn't the case at the moment, but the future is still very uncertain for most of our gyms in Wales. Minister, in the event of a future lockdown in Wales, could you give some good consideration to the idea that gyms should be classed as being for essential use on health grounds and should be allowed to remain open?

I think there are couple of points to make in response. The first is that with the firebreak that we're going through, we should remind ourselves (a) that there was a rising tide of coronavirus that necessitated the need to have a firebreak, to give us space to make sure we don't overwhelm our NHS and have unnecessary harm and death being caused. We chose to prioritise the interests of children and young people because we knew the mental health impact that closing schools for a significant period had upon children and young people in the here and now. We also know it has a significant impact on their future prospects, and that is an uneven impact, with children from our least advantaged backgrounds having the biggest impact from school closures. Once we decided to maintain all primary schools and to have face-to-face learning for years 7 and 8, that meant we had to take a much more strict approach with other closures to make the stay-at-home message and the impact of the firebreak as effective as possible. That's why non-essential retail, why hospitality and gyms were all sectors affected by the closure.

In terms of moving forward, you can see that England are also closing all gyms with their four-week lockdown as well, but for the future, what I can't say is that we'll definitely take one form of action or not. We're looking to have a consistent set of national rules to get us all to the end of the year, and we then need to try to reset and understand the position that we're in. Any future action the Government takes won't be determined on arguments run now, it'll be about the evidence at the time and an understanding of what we all need to do. So, the evidence will continue to guide the approach that Ministers take, the advisors will advise us, and Ministers will ultimately have to decide and be accountable to the public for the choices we are making to keep us all safe and to save lives and livelihoods.

Minister, the over-50s are the most at-risk group, and the importance of exercise for this group in general health and preserving high levels of mobility, which often decline with age, is really important for your immune system and for your ability to get vitamin D. However, there are many people, I think, who are quite afraid about going out sometimes, and when we are having this message of 'stay at home', it is important that that is balanced by the need to take regular exercise, and the best exercise for people over 50 is to walk regularly. But I am concerned, from what I see outside, that the age group that you least see outside is that, of which I am now a member. 

I thank the Member. That's a really important point. The effectiveness of our 'stay at home' message is really important, but we have balanced that by saying we positively want people to be able to exercise and to exercise safely. And we've seen that it is possible to go for a walk, to go for a cycle and to do that with your own household at this particular point in time. And we want to see that continue, because you make a fair point: with each decade that we add to our lives, we become more vulnerable to harm from coronavirus. And so maintaining and being as physically healthy as possible is important in terms of the potential response to the virus, but also it's hugely important for mental health and well-being. And more generally, there's work that we're continuing to do on our Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales programme, rediscovering and reimagining our latest options with diet, but with exercise too, and how we make it a normal thing that is easy for people to undertake with normal activity, so that we build back into our lives. And that is work that both ministerial colleagues Dafydd Elis-Thomas and now Eluned Morgan will be leading on, and I think the importance of that work will have been highlighted, not diminished, by the reality of the COVID pandemic. But a very useful and I think important intervention from David Melding about reminding us of the benefits of exercise.