6. What is the Welsh Government doing to prevent the asymptomatic spread of coronavirus in schools to protect teachers and pupils? OQ55940

Thank you, Leanne. I continue to be guided by the latest scientific and medical advice. We have recently agreed with higher education institutions across Wales the opportunity of piloting asymptomatic testing of students and staff, and we also intend to offer testing to students and staff in secondary schools, as well as the local college, as part of the mass testing programme in Merthyr Tydfil.

I welcome the recommendation that all schoolchildren, college students, teachers and staff should be tested for coronavirus given the high numbers of people that are asymptomatic, especially in the younger age groups. This should have been a key priority when the schools reopened before the summer. Now, the current situation is not sustainable. As one teacher told me, just last week, 'We are expected to adhere to COVID guidelines, which is absolutely fine, but we have not been offered any tests and I'm still waiting for the magic antibody test that we were promised. I've been teaching for 12 years and never have I felt so pissed off, so exhausted, so physically and emotionally drained. I'm trying to hold it all together for my kids, but I honestly can't go on much longer. I'm at breaking point.' So many teachers are fearful and anxious for their own safety. Now, I heard what you said earlier about Merthyr and the hopes that you had for rolling out mass testing in Cynon, but will you give teachers and parents in my area concrete answers and reassurances about when mass testing and regular testing in schools is likely to be available in Rhondda Cynon Taf and in other high-incidence areas?

Thank you, Leanne. I recognise the immense strain that teachers have been under since schools returned to full opening in September, just like the immense strain that all of our public sector workers have faced. I want to say that evidence to date from the latest Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies paper and the technical advisory cell paper says that, when looking at the teaching population as part of the wider population, teaching is regarded by the Office for National Statistics to be a low-risk profession. Although we have got incidents of transmission within a school setting, especially from staff to staff, that is a concern, and that's why it is really, really important that senior management teams and the school governors in particular schools ensure that all steps are taken to adequately follow the operational guidance that has been made available.

With regard to antibody testing, antibody testing was carried out amongst a significantly appropriate sample of teachers, especially those who had been working in hub scenarios, remembering, of course, that 500 schools in Wales never closed. So, that was done and those individuals have been followed up with further antibody testing to help us understand the epidemiology behind the disease.

It is early days for lateral flow testing. We need to ensure that the pilot in Merthyr Tydfil in the schools and colleges goes well there. There are active discussions going on at the moment to move that pilot into areas of the RCT area, and as soon as we're in a position to be able to work with our schools' local education authorities to carry out further lateral flow testing as a way of protecting and providing reassurance and minimising disruption, then I will come back to the Chamber and give full details of that. We're not in a position to do that as of today.

Thank you, Minister. I fully appreciate the measures that have been taken to suppress the spread of COVID in schools and how difficult it is for headteachers and staff to keep bubbles even as small as whole year groups. However, in the last few weeks, we are starting to see this problem across larger secondary schools in particular, and in my constituency there have been a number of schools where one positive case is leading to hundreds of children having to self-isolate for two weeks. In one case, a year group returned for two days only for another case to be identified and isolation having to start again. I've had an increasing amount of parents getting in touch who are understandably concerned about the impact that rolling isolation periods are having on their children's welfare and education. I completely understand the risk posed by transmission across year group bubbles, and the hopes for lateral flow testing, which would help. However, the current situation is very worrying when the cases are at current levels and disruption is increasing. What plans does the Welsh Government have to address this as quickly as possible?

Well, Jayne, the best thing we can do to minimise disruption to education is to get community transmission levels down in all of our communities, because it is community transmission that is leading to cases in our schools and the disruption that you discussed. We are working and providing best advice and examples of good practice to all schools with regard to bubbling and what constitutes a close contact, and therefore to try and reduce the number of children who are asked to self-isolate for these periods. Sometimes it is dependent on the advice that individual local TTP teams are giving to headteachers, and sometimes it is down to the way in which schools have operated their bubbles. We are, as I said, providing ongoing advice to schools and to local TTP teams to minimise the numbers of children who are asked to stay at home.

Lateral flow testing does indeed offer us that hope of minimising that disruption, especially to those who are regarded as contacts and do not have symptoms themselves, as a possible way of administering a daily test over a number of days that then would allow them to go into school. But as I said, the TAC paper asks us to explore the viability of offering an asymptomatic testing programme. It's not simple, and, as I said, we're keen to learn the lessons from both our universities and our schools before we can roll that out further.