Today, that situation has changed markedly and the approaching storm is bearing down upon us. The very latest figures show that there are now 941 confirmed cases of omicron, and that number is rising, and it is present now in every area of Wales. Omicron is already the dominant variant in England and Scotland, and it is only a matter of time before it overtakes delta as the dominant form of the virus across Wales too. For many weeks, we have had high but stable rates of coronavirus in Wales, at around 500 cases per 100,000 people. But these, too, have risen sharply in the last few days. Today, that figure has moved beyond 600 per 100,000 people, in a combination now of both delta and omicron cases. Numbers in this scale already risk putting our public services under considerable strain because of sickness absences, and we can only expect this to intensify as we move into the omicron wave after Christmas.

Llywydd, throughout the pandemic, we have reviewed our coronavirus regulations every three weeks to ensure we have the right protections in place to keep Wales safe. Because of the speed of change, we have moved to a weekly cycle of Cabinet meetings and we have—[Inaudible.]