First Minister continues to press the case for travel restrictions from English Covid hot-spots
Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price MS (Plaid, Carms. E. & Dinefwr), raised what he describes as the “absurdity” of people in English local lockdown areas still being to travel to areas in Wales where the number of new Covid-19 cases remains low.
The R-rate/transmission rate for Wales is now between 1.3-1.6 (note: ideally it should be below 1) when it was 0.5 in September.
The Scottish Government are considering tighter restrictions and the Welsh Government has received advice telling them that the earlier new measures are introduced, the more effective they’ll be. What was on the drawing board for Wales?
The First Minister began by expressing frustration at the Prime Minister’s refusal to acknowledge his letter on hot-spot travel, which he called “disrespectful to the Senedd and the people of Wales”.
He continues to press the case:
“What I asked for in my letter was not a border solution; it was a solution that would have prevented people living in hotspot areas in England from travelling to other places where the virus was not in the same place, whether that was in England, Scotland or in Wales….I still think that that is the right answer and I pressed that again….yesterday.”
– First Minister, Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West)
Longer waits for routine surgery “inevitable”
Leader of the Opposition, Paul Davies MS (Con, Preseli Pembs.), turned to reports that the waiting list for routine surgery in Wales is now six times longer than it was a year ago. The solution lies in smarter use of hospital capacity.
“First Minister, these delays will continue to stretch the capacity of the NHS….Now, the Royal College of Surgeons has called on the Welsh Government to develop so-called green zones or Covid-lite areas in hospitals, therefore can you tell us what action the Welsh Government took in response to these warnings to help expedite treatment for those people waiting across Wales?”
– Leader of the Opposition, Paul Davies MS
Perhaps stating the obvious, the First Minister said it was an inescapable inevitability that routine NHS work will take longer. Work on creating green zones for treatment was underway, though it would be impossible for whole hospitals to become a green zone.
Growing frustrated at the seemingly wasted questions on things the government already knew about and had previously acknowledged, the First Minister said the Conservatives haven’t offered a single solution as to how to address these problems.
There were “no easy answers”, made more difficult by the cancellation of the UK’s autumn budget, which means the Welsh Government won’t know how much money they’ll have to spend next year until the end of November.
