Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 16 November 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:49, 16 November 2021

Well, Llywydd, the Member wanted to suggest that we weren't taking the advice of the chief medical officer on one score—he's wrong there, by the way: we do follow the chief medical officer's advice, and he supports our position on the COVID pass—but then he wants me to ignore the advice of the deputy chief medical officer when it comes to the testing regime. We will follow the best advice that we can have, we will continue to protect our health workers and our social care workers. I'm very encouraged by the take-up of the booster vaccine in both of those sectors, and we will continue to have a testing regime in both of those locations that is consistent with the best advice that we get.

On the broader point that the Member asks about testing, well, I agree with him there, of course, that testing is a very important part of our armoury in dealing with coronavirus. We encourage people to be tested whenever they have symptoms or they've been in touch with somebody who has been confirmed as a coronavirus case, and, of course, our COVID pass regime allows somebody to demonstrate that they have taken the measures they need to to keep themselves and others safe by taking a test within a short period of attending at a particularly high-risk venue. So, we will continue to do that. I will say this to the Member, that the biggest anxiety that I have about testing in Wales are the signs that we're getting from the UK Government and from the Treasury that they intend to withdraw funding from the testing regime across the United Kingdom, and that their plan for the post-winter period is to reduce testing to a residual part of the protection rather than the central part of the protection that it is at the moment across the United Kingdom, and certainly here in Wales.