COVID-19: Dispruption to Education

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:19 pm on 29 September 2021.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 3:19, 29 September 2021

We anticipate that all children in that age group will have received the offer of vaccination during the month of October through invitations to mass vaccination centres. Just on the point that the Member made about the increase in cases in the 10 to 19 cohort, just to say that the very, very extensive testing of asymptomatic pupils in that age range will necessarily lead to the identification of more cases. That's obviously what it's designed to do, and I think last week a little over 40 per cent of all the tests undertaken on a walk-in basis were for children aged 18 and under. So, that is partly an explanation for the numbers that we are seeing, and I'm just echoing the point that I made earlier that that particular cohort—the case rate appears to have reduced in the last week as against the week before, which I know that she would also welcome.

Just on the guidance, it is important for this to be clear, and the guidance is set out very clearly on the Welsh Government website, in the communications that we give, but I will take this opportunity of setting it out. We keep this guidance continuously—both in school and beyond—under review to reflect the best, most recent evidence and guidance that we get. At alert level 0, anybody under the age of 18 who is a close contact but who is not symptomatic is not required to self-isolate. So, asking people to self-isolate in those circumstances requires a very special justification, and I think asking young people to abide by rules that are more stringent than the rules that adults abide by, when they're less likely to be harmed and adults have—the vast majority have—been vaccinated, I think that’s a very challenging place to start from.

There is a common-sense assumption, which I completely understand, that all family members will catch, or most family members will catch, COVID from a household case. That isn't actually borne out by what we understand the evidence to be at the moment. Obviously, these things are kept continuously under review, but that isn’t borne out by what we currently understand the picture to be. What is borne out is the sort of thing we heard the Member's colleague James Evans describing in questions to the Deputy Minister for mental health earlier, which is the very significant adverse impact on young people of not being in school. So, that tells us, on our current understanding, that the balance of harm supports the current policy.