Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 11 January 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:53, 11 January 2022

Well, we will do exactly what the leader of the Conservative Party said we should do at the start of that final question—we will follow the modelling. As I've said to him, the modelling currently shows that we are not yet at the peak of coronavirus in Wales. Now, nobody, I think, in a responsible position would argue that we should be lessening the levels of protection available here in Wales while the number of people suffering from the omicron wave is going up, not coming down. Once we are in a position where we are confident that we are past the peak and that the numbers are indeed falling, that will be the point at which we are able to set out, as of course we would want to do, a plan for reducing some of the protections that are currently in place, because then the numbers in Wales will be improving, not worsening. The model tells us that we're likely to see them worsening over the next week, and in those circumstances, it simply would not be responsible to think that this is the moment at which you would begin to remove the protections that are helping to save people from this virus, keep more people in work, lessen the pressures on the NHS. Those are the reasons we take actions here in Wales, and we will not be diverted from doing so.