First Minister defends axing Covid-19 daily testing target
FIRST Minister Mark Drakeford has defended a decision to drop Wales’ daily coronavirus testing targets – as health experts said the number of new cases in the nation may be “levelling-off”.
The Welsh Government had previously set a target of 5,000 tests per day by the second or third week of April, but it had dropped to fewer than 1,000 on Sunday.
Mr Drakeford yesterday said he had been advised the target was achievable when it was announced last month and was acting in “good faith”, but had been let down by circumstances “outside our own control”.
Plaid Cymru branded the decision a “scandal” and accused of the Welsh Government of having a “track record” of dropping targets it did not reach.
A review of testing in Wales has been announced, with plans to simplify the system.
The news came as:
■ The UK’s coronavirus death toll rose to at least 16,509 after another 449 hospital patients died with Covid-19;
■ Wales’ death toll rose by nine to 584; and Public Health Wales said new cases may have reached a plateau in the nation, after figures showed an extra 276 had tested positive for Covid-19.
Referring to his decision on testing, which was condemned by political opponents, Mr Drakeford said: “We are not going to get to the 5,000 figure we had hoped to by the middle of this month.
“What we have said in the rapid review is that we will report every week on the number of tests available to the NHS in Wales on a daily basis, the number that are being taken up and the plans that we have to increase that number over the week ahead.
“The advice we had from the people that help us develop testing is that we had confidence at that point that we could get to 5,000 tests.
“As it happened, some of the things we were relying upon to get to the 5,000 number a day haven’t turned out to be achievable in practice, partly because some of those things are outside our own control and we were relying on equipment coming to Wales from overseas.”
Plaid Cymru’s
Shadow health minister Rhun ap
Iorwerth said: “Now with fewer than 1,000 tests being done a day they’ve dropped the targets altogether. It’s a scandal. Testing has to be a priority.” Just hours later his party leader, Adam Price, called for a “no stone unturned” investigation into the Covid-19 pandemic response in Wales to start immediately.
The judicial inquiry would run in parallel with a UK judge-led inquiry and its initial findings would be ready by the end of summer.
Mr Price said: “Covid-19 may be with us for some time – so waiting for the crisis to be over till we learn the lessons may push back the final report to many years in the future.
“The risk of a second wave is real and without a vaccine, we could face a very difficult winter.
“We need to learn lessons now. Establishing an inquiry right away into how the Welsh Government responded would mean work could begin immediately while memories are fresh and initial findings could be ready by the end of the summer.” Mr Drakeford’s scrapping of test targets also drew a scathing response from the Tories, with Welsh Conservative health spokeswoman Angela Burns calling for a dedicated team to manage testing.
“This is a concerning statement for the First Minister to make and I have to ask if this is more a case of dropping the target because Welsh Government is finding it unachievable,” she said.
“We were promised 9,000 tests a day by the end of April and over the past few weeks this number has steadily been reduced as a target until there is none.
“We are still floundering around the low thousands, there is unused capacity as people find accessing testing cumbersome and timescales difficult to meet, health boards tell me there is a lack of clarity and there are still no firm plans for consistency of provision throughout Wales.
“Now is the time for a dedicated team to manage the testing process from start to finish rather than the piecemeal disorganisation we are witnessing now.”
The row over testing came as 276 additional people have been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 to take the overall total since the out
break began to 7,546.
The true figure is likely to be far higher as only patients in hospitals and frontline healthcare workers are currently being tested.
But Public Health Wales said there was “emerging evidence suggesting a levelling-off in the number of new cases” across the country, which may indicate the “effectiveness of lockdown measures”.
Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “Based on the new case numbers there is emerging evidence suggesting a levelling-off in the number of new cases of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in Wales, which may be an indication of the effectiveness of lockdown measures.
“However it is still too early to tell for sure and it is too soon to end the current social distancing rules.
“Public Health Wales continues to fully support the extension of lockdown measures, which is essential to avoid reversing the gains we have made in slowing the spread of this virus, protecting our NHS, and saving lives.”
Mr Drakeford added that despite the good weather at the weekend police forces were reporting that the public were adhering to the lockdown restrictions “at a high level”.
In other parts of Europe the daily number of reported deaths continues to fall.
In total coronavirus has infected 2.4m people around the world with the death toll standing at more than 165,000.
Meanwhile, Mr Drakeford said a community testing and surveillance system would be needed once the lockdown is lifted.
“As we begin to lift the lockdown, no matter how carefully and cautiously we do it, it is inevitable that the circulation of the virus in the community will grow in some places,” he said.
The First Minister said more people would have to be mobilised, such as local authority workers and university students, to work on the ground.
“They won’t necessarily have to be people with long degrees and necessary experience in sophisticated public health medicine but they will be presence on the ground helping us to do that job of spotting, tracing and isolating,” he said.
He revealed he had also written to Cabinet Officer minister Michael Gove to suggest the devolved administrations met regularly with the UK Government to discuss the crisis.
“What I have said to Mr Gove today is that I believe it is important to have a regular rhythm of these meetings over the next three weeks,” he said.
“I don’t want us to be in a position of meeting the day before the three weeks are up and to agree what’s going to happen in short order because I think those decisions are going to be more complicated and contentious than simply a decision to extend the lockdown.”
Mr Drakeford warned that if there was not a UK-wide agreement once the next three-week review of the lockdown was due, Wales could go it alone.
“I have always said that moving together across the UK is the best way of doing things for Wales,” he said.
“If we can’t secure it and we need to make decisions for ourselves that is of course what we will do.”