4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on COVID-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:04 pm on 11 January 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 5:04, 11 January 2022

(Translated)

Thank you very much, Heledd. You are correct: heroic work has been done by all kinds of people over the past few weeks—in terms of carers, those who work for health services, and particularly those unpaid carers who work on all of our behalf. The fact is, if they weren't there, we as a Government would have to step into the breach, or local government would have to do that work for them. So, we always want to express our thanks to those unpaid carers.

In terms of those lateral flow tests, I was genuinely surprised that the UK Government had raised this issue in the middle of the pandemic when we were at the peak of a wave. If you want to create a situation where people rush out to try to get hold of as many LFTs as possible, when it's difficult to source them—. It was incredible that they'd considered doing that at this time. So, no, there are no plans for us to charge for LFTs.

In terms of the COVID passes, I think I said before Christmas that detailed work is being done on this issue. I said at that time that it's the same people who are working on this issue as have been working on other issues, such as the testing regime, so at the moment they are in the middle of that particular storm, so I would ask you to be a little more patient for a while yet, so we can come to the end of this particular push to get people vaccinated. And certainly, I will follow up once again. I know, Heledd, that this is a really important issue for you, and certainly, we haven't lost sight of it either, but at the moment it's the same people doing both jobs of work.