8. The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 13) Regulations 2021

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:52 pm on 29 June 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 5:52, 29 June 2021

Diolch yn fawr. There were quite a few issues there. I'll just try and canter through them as quickly as I can. First of all, on weddings, we've always been really concerned about weddings. I know there are a lot of people who run businesses in this sector who have genuinely suffered during this time. We're also very aware that this is exactly the kind of place where the virus could spread, where people haven't seen each other for a very long time, so we have to bear that in mind, and that's why we've had to take a very careful approach to reopening weddings. But we're really pleased that we've been able to move a little bit quicker in that space with these particular amendments.

In terms of the lead time, in an ideal world, it is a problem, isn't it? You can't just snap up a wedding overnight. People need a longer lead-in time in order to organise, and the problem we have is that we have a three-weekly review. What we haven't done in Wales is to give a long-term commitment of what's likely to happen, and that's because we've watched what's happened in England, where they've made promises and they've been broken time and time again, as the virus has just reacted and responded in a different way from what was modelled. So, we have to be aware that things can change quickly, and we are taking a much more cautious approach, because we don't want to raise expectations that then need to be dashed, which is what's happened time and time again in England.

Ventilation—we're very keen to underline the importance of that; I am glad that Rhun has underlined that. I think, in particular, in summer, it is a good time to remind people that, actually, air flow is an important factor.

In terms of the spread in schools, I think what the education Minister has said is that there will be a framework within which people will make these decisions. It is not up to every school just to randomly decide what is going to happen; there will be a framework within which they will be working and that will be developed over the next few weeks so that we're ready for coming back to schools in September with an understanding of what those different circumstances may be, because we may have some parts of the country where the virus is running rampant, and other parts where the virus is at a low level.

We don't have a terminus date in Wales. We're not going to give a terminus date in Wales. And I just thought it was really interesting that the first thing that the new health Secretary did in England was to announce, 'Right, there we are, liberation day is coming.' And I have actually written to him, I'm pleased to say, just to welcome him to his post but also to say how important it is to follow the data. And that is the approach that we've taken in Wales. We usually have weekly meetings of the four nations' health Ministers. I haven't heard that it's going to be cancelled, so I'm assuming that that will go ahead. 

I am really pleased to see the very welcome figures that we're seeing in Wales in relation to the number of people in hospital now with COVID. We're down to 88 people in hospital with COVID. That's 21 per cent lower than last Tuesday. So, the signs are really looking very good, and so—. It's actually quite a difficult message, isn't it, to give to the public, to say, 'Actually, the case rates are going up, but it's levelling off in terms of hospital admissions.' So, we have to think about how we're going to deal with that in the next few weeks, and of course we'll have an opportunity to get a bit more data so that we can be absolutely clear about the situation. But it's looking very positive, I must say. 

And in terms of getting the NHS back to capacity, there's a real focus on this now. It's very difficult, because the rates are increasing significantly, and there will be people who work in our NHS who will catch COVID in the community and then they will have to self-isolate. So, we've got to remember that seeing those numbers increase in the community will also have an impact in our hospitals on the people who are working there.