4. Statement by the First Minister: Review of the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:36 pm on 19 May 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:36, 19 May 2021

Well, I thank Natasha Asghar for her first contribution on the floor of the Senedd as well, and welcome her, of course, as a Member. And her question points to some very significant issues. The stresses and strains on our front-line staff in the health service have been enormous, and we've relied on them hugely to keep us safe during the pandemic, and we're going to have to go on relying on them for many other things we've talked about this afternoon. When the leader of the opposition rightly asks me about a booster programme in the autumn, it will be those same workers that we will be relying on to do that for us. When we talk about the need to be able to get the NHS working on the things that it has to do for everybody else, it will be the same people we will be relying on. So, it's a very important point about making sure that, when we make that ask of them, we are looking after them as well so that their health and well-being can also be considered. 

In terms of what we are doing on making sure we've got the best information on new variants, well, we rely on the advice of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, the UK committee, but we have our own technical advisory group, and we publish its evidence to Government regularly. We are very fortunate to have one of the most advanced capacities in the world of genome sequencing here. So, part of the effort that's made across the United Kingdom to identify new variants relies on the Welsh capacity that we have, and UK capacity is amongst the very best in the world, partly as a result of that. So, we are very fortunate in having that early-warning system that we're able to deploy here in Wales, and that, alongside the interpretation of that evidence by the scientists who advise us, will be part of our contribution to that wider effort to make sure that new variants are identified as quickly as possible, that we understand the scale and scope of them, and then we're able to take whatever actions we can to go on keeping people in Wales safe.