NEXT STRATEGY TO TEST TRACE AND PROTECT WELSH PUBLIC PUBLISHED

Member of the Senedd, Eluned Morgan has welcomed the publication of a new Welsh Government strategy that outlines how testing and tracing cases of Covid-19 will be rolled out across Wales.

Details of Test Trace Protect have been published online by the Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething.

The plan includes:

• Increasing testing of critical workers to enable them to return to work
• A new system of home testing for the public if they have coronavirus symptoms
• A new app to track symptoms in the general population and contact others who have symptoms or have tested positive.

Currently, tests are provided to critical care workers across Wales in a combination of settings from new drive-thru centres to existing clinics.

Eluned Morgan MS said: “Testing and tracing the virus has to become part of the plan to protect the public and create the ‘new’ normal in our daily lives.  Testing for a new virus is a complicated process and countries across the world have had to deal with scarce supplies, complex arrangements and the fact that some tests have not been reliable enough.

Testing capacity currently stands at more than 5,000 tests a day. Testing capacity will be increased to up to 20,000 tests a day, by drawing on a UK-wide scheme, as the Test, Trace, Protect strategy is implemented.

The exact number of tests Wales will need every day will depend on the level of coronavirus circulating in the community and the emerging evidence about how testing should be deployed to prevent infection. This will be kept under review.

Eluned Morgan MS continued: “This strategy builds on the hard work already being achieved across Wales by our front line workers.  As the first wave of the virus has peaked, it is paramount that our focus should be on implementing a plan that we can deliver, providing confidence and reassurance to the public.  We can only start to rebuild our communities and economy when we have a system that allows us to pinpoint outbreaks and manage them accordingly.  We will need to work closely with our local authority colleagues to get this new system up to speed. All of these measures will become part of our ‘new’ normal for the foreseeable future.”