Calls to sort out testing amid virus deaths surge
2,352 die in UK – up 563 from previous day 29 further lives lost in Wales, taking total to 98 Collapsed tests deal firm named as Roche
PRESSURE was building over the delays in Covid-19 testing last night as both Wales and the UK recorded their biggest dayon-day rises in deaths so far.
The number of deaths rose 563 to 2,352 across the UK yesterday with 98 deaths now confirmed in Wales since the pandemic began – an increase of 29 on the previous day.
Details about how Wales’ testing capacity will be ramped up further are due to be unveiled today, amid concerns the nation’s number of cases is likely to be much higher than the 1,837 confirmed to date.
First Minister Mark Drakeford yesterday named the company that, he said, should have “honoured” the agreement in place to provide 5,000 tests a day as Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche.
The UK Government also faced intense scrutiny over its policy on testing with Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, telling the Number 10 press briefing there was an intention to scale up testing.
TWENTY-NINE more people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in Wales – the highest number reported in a single day.
It means 98 people in Wales have now died from the virus since the outbreak began.
Public Health Wales also confirmed yesterday that 1,837 people have now been diagnosed with Covid-19 across the nation, up 274 from 1,563 on Tuesday.
Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “274 new cases have tested positive for novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,837, although the true number of cases is likely to be higher.
“Twenty-nine further deaths have been reported to us of people who had tested positive for novel coronavirus (Covid-19), taking the number of deaths in Wales to 98. “We offer our condolences to families and friends affected, and we ask those reporting on the situation to respect patient confidentiality.”
The Aneurin Bevan health board continues to have the highest number of recorded cases with 681, a rise of 91 and a third of all cases in Wales
Cardiff and Vale has the second highest number with 640 cases.
But health officials have warned Wales’ overall total is likely to be much higher as they work to ramp up testing across the country.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said that details about how testing capacity will increase further will be released today.
The company involved in a collapsed deal to supply Covid-19 testing equipment to the NHS in Wales was Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche, the First Minister confirmed yesterday.
Mark Drakeford told the Assembly members during a session of the Plenary that the company should have “honoured” the agreement in place to provide 5,000 tests a day.
It emerged over the weekend that the deal had collapsed but the identity of the firm involved had not been publicly confirmed until now.
“We did have a deal, it was with Roche. We believe that it was a deal that ought to have been honoured,” Mr Drakeford said yesterday.
“We now have access to a supply of tests from a consortium of suppliers that will give us a considerable uplift in testing here in Wales.
“Truthfully, what I believe patients are interested in is that testing will be available, that staff can be tested and go back to work, and some of the detail of how that came about is not, I think, uppermost in the minds of people who need that testing.
“They want to know it’s there and is going to be available, and available in greater numbers, and we can be confident of that.”
Mr Drakeford said Wales was working with the other nations of the UK to deliver more testing capacity.
“We don’t want to be competing with one another for scarce resources,” he said. “Working together with colleagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England gives us some resilience in the system.
“It doesn’t preclude us from looking for supplies of our own, but this is very competitive.
“Working together is, I think, in the interests of Wales, and of our friends and colleagues in other parts of the UK as well.”
The row over testing has continued since it emerged over the weekend the deal with Roche had collapsed.
Originally, the Welsh Government had planned from April 1 to be able to do complete 6,000 tests daily.
By April 7, this was to increase by a further 2,000 tests per day and by the end of April there would have been capacity for 9,000 tests a day.
The Welsh Government is now working with other private organisations, the university sector and the NHS to increase the current testing
capacity.
Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price welcomed Mr Drakeford’s decision to identify the company involved but said more information was needed.
“We still don’t know why the deal collapsed in the first place.
“It is in the public interest that the Welsh Government and Roche tell us what exactly happened to make the agreement fail,” he said.
“We were told that starting today we’d be conducting 6,000 tests per day.
“But because the deal fell through, only 1,100 tests will now be done a day, a loss of 5,000 tests
“That’s a scandal.” A spokesman for Public Health England said: “The UK Government recently asked Public Health England to establish a partnership with Roche to support increased diagnostic testing in the UK for Covid-19.
“Testing in Wales using the Roche capabilities is due to begin next week.
“Public Health England has agreed with Public Health Wales that any additional testing requirements for Wales required in the meantime will be delivered by us.
“Public Health England did not intervene in any discussions between Roche and Wales.”
And Roche Diagnostics said in a statement: “We maintain that Roche never had a contract or agreement directly with Wales to supply testing for Covid-19.
“Our absolute priority and focus at this time is to support the UK Government and NHS to scale up testing across the whole of the UK, including in Wales.
“As part of the centralised roll-out of testing, we will continue to speak to colleagues at Public Health Wales to move this forward as quickly as possible.”
Mr Drakeford also announced that Mr Price and leader of the Welsh Tory group, Paul Davies, had joined the Government’s Covid group, which meets every Wednesday to receive reports from the chief medical officer and the NHS Wales chief executive.
In Wales’ daily coronavirus briefing yesterday, Education Minister Kirsty Williams said the disease could peak at different times in different parts of Wales, but that the actions of the public “are making a difference”.
She said: “We will have to wait and see if the continuation of these measures, and its absolutely crucial that people carry on doing what they can to socially distance and isolate themselves, will be having an effect on the peak of the disease progression in Wales.”
The Welsh Ambulance Serice said it had “become apparent” that some people had been withholding information for fear of not being sent an ambulance during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Lee Brooks, the trust’s director of operations, said: “This is incredibly unfair on our staff as it means that their right to enter your home prepared has been removed.”
The first person to be arrested on the railways for breaching the new coronavirus lockdown rules has been fined £660. Marie Dinou, 41, from York, was found “loitering between platforms” at Newcastle Central Station at around 8am on Saturday as she apparently tried to travel, British Transport Police (BTP) said. Meanwhile, Mr Gething said yesterday: “We’ve got over 30,000 people registered as volunteers, and within the last week we’ve had a reach of a 1,000 people a day registering to be volunteers to support people in their local community.”
It had emerged on Tuesday that 1,300 retired health and social care staff in Wales including 670 doctors, 416 nurses and midwives and 194 allied healthcare professional had “answered the call” to come back to work in the Welsh NHS, and that 3,760 medical, nursing, midwifery, paramedic and healthcare students were being brought in to help in the NHS.
Social Care Wales has sent out 850 letters to people previously registered asking them to come back to work.
Field hospitals are now being set up in different areas of Wales, including the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Llandarcy Academy of Sport and Bay Studios in Swansea Bay, and Llandudno’s Venue Cymru.
Two hotels in Cardiff will provide rooms to house homeless people during the crisis, as well as two newly completed shipping container schemes in the city’s Ely and Butetown areas.
Assembly Member’s pay, which had been due to increase by 4.4% for the 2020-21 financial year, has been frozen for six months.