1. Statement by the First Minister: Update on COVID-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 22 December 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:24, 22 December 2021

Llywydd, apologies for the fact that I'm scanning the information that I have in front of me, and I can't put my eyes on the figure of people in hospital in Wales at the moment, but that figure is available. It is a modest number at the moment, but I know that Russell George will have seen the figures from London and from Manchester of the very rapid rises there have been there in the last week of hospitalisations from omicron cases, hospitalisations that began concentrated amongst people in their 20s and 30s, but have since moved up the age ranges as well. So, because we are behind the curve—we are lucky enough to have that small advantage in Wales—the numbers in Wales at the moment are small. But I'm afraid that we have to look at the pattern elsewhere and prepare ourselves for that. Can I say that there are inevitably trade-offs in what we're able to do? If we want the vaccination programme to be run at the speed that it is—[Inaudible.]