9. Will the First Minister make a statement on the number of people who have died after acquiring coronavirus in Welsh hospitals? OQ55957

Llywydd, neither the ONS nor Public Health Wales publish mortality figures on this basis. A comprehensive explanation of mortality data sources for Wales was set out by the chief statistician earlier in the pandemic.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister, and our thoughts are with all the families, obviously, who have lost loved ones, wherever they are in Wales, to coronavirus. But in my own electoral region, Cwm Taf health board has suffered a tremendous amount of death, regrettably, in the hospital setting, and it seems to have gone through all the three district general hospitals that sit within that local health board. It is important that lessons are learnt and it is important that what's learnt from those lessons is put into practice. I cover the Cardiff and Vale health board area, being a regional Member, and in that health board area, thankfully, we haven't seen such a number of deaths in hospital. So, there clearly is good practice going on in other health boards. What assurance can you give me that the lessons learnt exercise that undoubtedly is being undertaken by Cwm Taf will implement more stringent control measures so that we do not see a repetition of the tragic scenes that we've seen at the Royal Glamorgan, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles Merthyr hospitals?

Llywydd, I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for that. I agree with much of what he said. The deaths that we have seen from coronavirus in the community and in hospital are always an individual tragedy for families involved and our thoughts really do need to be with them. For the week ending 22 November, Public Health Wales data shows that 94 per cent of all confirmed cases were acquired in the community, and 3 per cent of cases were acquired in hospital, but that does mean that hospitals have a particular obligation to make sure that they do everything they can to prevent the spread of virus once it has gained any sort of footing within a closed setting such as a hospital.

We learnt lessons earlier in the summer, Llywydd, from an outbreak in the Wrexham Maelor Hospital, and they have been advising colleagues in Cwm Taf as well, and the lessons that are being learnt there are being spread to other parts of the health service here in Wales. It's just an unfortunate and inescapable fact that as community prevalence rises, the chance of the virus getting into a closed setting, whether that's a care home or a hospital or a prison, rises at the same time. In those communities where coronavirus has been in particularly violent circulation—that's certainly been true of RCT—then those risks are even greater. But learning the lessons from the experience and making sure that they are available to others who may face the same challenges is a very important part of the response, and very much, I know, part of the way that Public Health Wales and the specialists in this field are working together.

Thank you, First Minister.