3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on COVID-19 Vaccinations

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:33 pm on 2 February 2021.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:33, 2 February 2021

If I deal with the last question first, because I think, actually, if people go to a testing centre with a range of symptoms that aren't classical, but they can explain how they feel, then most people are not going to be turned away. That isn't going to be the experience. And, actually, our bigger problem is that there are people who have symptoms but don't get a test. If you look at the technical advisory group reports that we have continued to publish every week, you'll see there's a regular feature in there, and one of the regular features that I certainly look at every week, even if others don't, is you look at the number of people who acknowledge they've had symptoms and then how many of them go on to have a test, and only about half of the people who have the classic symptoms, as was put in the question, actually go on to get themselves tested. So, there is a real issue there, and there's a divide in age ranges, and a divide between genders as well. Men, frankly, are much less likely to get tested, and, actually, we know that older men are one of the higher risk categories as well. So, it's really frustrating. We need to get the message out: if you've got the symptoms, get yourself a test. And there is plenty of testing capacity at this point in time, because—one of your earlier points was that the lockdowns have worked in driving down transmission rates. Transmission rates are falling, case rates are falling—we want to see that continue—and that means that fewer people are going to get tests. 

And in terms of the genomic expertise that we do have, we punch well above our weight here in Wales, and we should be really proud of what our genomic experts are delivering in terms of the overall effort, not just to Wales, the UK, but the wider world as well. The labs we have currently are in a position where we're able to pick up a range of new variants. We've had agreement about making sure that we have a representative sample of Welsh tests to go to lighthouse labs so they can pick up the new UK variant, the Kent variant. And we also have a range of testing in place to pick up where we might have the South African variant. That's why—. We have low numbers of the South African variant here—literally handfuls—as opposed to the much larger numbers that, unfortunately, have tested positive in England. And it'll be really important for us—we want that testing programme in England looking for the South African variant to succeed, because that will actually help to keep all of us safe as well. And some of the areas where they're testing are on the Welsh border, so it's really important that we keep close to each other across the UK to understand the knowledge that we're each acquiring, and then to share it openly. And that has been a really important feature in this pandemic. It will have to carry on for many months ahead into the future.