7. The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 17) Regulations 2021

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:55 pm on 5 October 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:55, 5 October 2021

Thank you, Russell. I don't buy that argument, because they're going to have to screen these young people to make sure that they're above the age for drinking alcohol in any case; otherwise, they're going to be non-compliant with the law in other respects. So, they are going to have to do their checks in any case, and they can do it all in one shot with the COVID pass, which shows you what the date of birth is, and therefore, it doesn't in fact increase the procedure required, it just simplifies it.

So, I also think we have to really understand just how much pressure our emergency services are under, because demand for emergency services is now back to where it was before COVID, and on top of that, we've got all the doctors and nurses who are exhausted after 18 months of having to deal with an unprecedented pandemic, and they're having to screen everybody who turns up in an emergency, to make sure that they're not bringing COVID into the hospital, so they are under massive pressure. Why wouldn't want we to be responsibly trying to ensure that we're not giving them an even bigger task than they've got already?

I just think that it absolutely is something that we need to do, and I'm really not buying the Plaid argument that we don't know enough. I really do think that there may be some holes in the way that the lateral flow tests are going to be done, and maybe PCR tests would be more secure, but that is not a reason for not saying we need to have COVID passes before we go to these events.