Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 11 January 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:50, 11 January 2022

Well, of course, the leader of the opposition is right that we have the latest modelling. It shows that the peak of the omicron wave of coronavirus is yet to be reached in Wales, that we may be 10 days away from the peak, and numbers could continue to climb very rapidly. Now, as I've said a number of times, in a small piece of good news, the same modelling shows numbers then beginning to decline relatively rapidly as well.

Once we are in a position of knowing that Wales has passed the peak, that the impact that it is having on our public services, on workers in the private sector, on the ability of our health service to deal with the growing numbers of people in a hospital bed because of coronavirus, then we will want, as quickly but as safely as possible, to begin to relax some of the protections that have been necessary while the omicron wave was still coming at us, but we're not at that point. We're not at that point today. Now, we will review the data, as we do every day and every week, and next week will be the end of a three-week review period. If we are very fortunate, and it's a very big 'if', and we find that we have passed that peak and we are on a reliable reduction in impact of coronavirus upon us, then we will look to see what we can do, as I say, to relax some of the protections that we've had to put in place. But we will not do it—[Interruption.] We will not do it until we are confident that the scientific and medical advice to us is that it is safe to move in that direction.