The Welsh Conservatives had called for a trace, test, and track regime to be introduced in Wales, and have welcomed the Health Minister’s statement today (May 13) that such a scheme will be introduced.
Shadow Health Minister Angela Burns MS welcomed the announcement during today’s Plenary session, and later said:
“We have been calling for this for weeks, and while overdue, it’s better late than never.
“However, the devil will be in the detail, and at the moment, this announcement is more of an outline, rather than a definitive plan.
“I also welcome, cautiously, the Minister’s pledge to increase testing to 10,000 tests a day. Again, significantly increased testing is something that I and my Welsh Conservatives have been demanding for weeks.
“And yet, we have been given testing targets in Wales before, with 5,000 a day pledged by the end of April, which we know was not achieved. Even as recently as yesterday, figures were released indicating that just a fifth [1,193] of daily testing capacity [5,300] is being realised.
“Targets, if set, must be met, and until this new – and hopefully not over-ambitious – target of 10,000 is reached consistently, then it’s little more than a pipe dream.”