5. The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 19) Regulations 2021

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:59 pm on 9 November 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:59, 9 November 2021

Thank you. Listen, people on the lowest incomes are not able to go to the matches, either the rugby, the football, or the cinema; let's get real on this one. The fact is that it is a suite of measures that is what enables us to have the maximum impact on bringing down the infection rates, and that is what we're trying to do here. I do not think that the Welsh Government is going to continue with these regulations any longer than they are required, but, in the meantime, businesses are missing a trick. I do not regard it is anti-business, I think this is pro-business, because businesses are at liberty to adopt COVID passes, say in their hostelry or in their restaurant, and then parade it as a unique selling point for why people might want to go to their restaurant or their pub, because they would be comfortable, just as the First Minister described. People at the matches said, 'I felt better able to come here with confidence today, because I knew that everybody would either have had their jabs, or they would have been tested.' So, I think you are looking at it down the wrong end of the telescope on this one, and this is something that does no harm and does plenty of good. Frank Atherton supports this as part of a suite of measures to enable people to realise that the pandemic has not gone away and people are still dying of it.