 Gweithio, ac rwy'n gweithio i'r cwestiynau coronavirus Cymru gyda'r Gweithio Welsh. Over the last month, coronavirus has grown significantly across Wales. As coronavirus has re-established a much larger foothold in our towns, cities and villages, we've introduced new measures to protect people's health and to help control the spread of this highly infectious virus. All of this has happened very quickly. There's naturally a lot of confusion about the virus and the action that we've taken. So today I want to try to answer some of the most common questions we've had from people about coronavirus and why we've taken the action that we have. I want to start by showing you a very short video which has been put together by the sale data bank team in Swansea University Medical School and is based on a model of the data from confirmed cases. It shows just how quickly coronavirus has spread. At the end of August, there was hardly any coronavirus in Wales, just a few patches in Wrexham and South Wales. As September starts, you can see the cases just beginning to spread in South Wales and some clusters in mid Wales. As the month goes on, you can see the spread in the South Wales Valleys, the lighter the colour, the more the cases. And coronavirus spreads quickly across South Wales with more and more people testing positive. And as September comes to an end, we see cases spreading across North Wales. The number of people living with the virus is continuing to increase. We will put this video on our social media channels. I want to thank the team at the sale data bank for all the work they have done to make this striking presentation. It shows just how quickly the situation can change and how coronavirus can spread right across Wales in a matter of weeks. As I said at the start, I want to answer some of the questions that people have about coronavirus and why we're taking the action that we have to control it. I'll begin with the general question some people still ask about, why are we making such a fuss about coronavirus? Is there really a problem? Coronavirus is a new disease. 35 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 1 million people have died. There are currently no drugs licensed to treat or prevent coronavirus anywhere in the world and there is no known cure. We do not have a vaccine but research continues. It is highly infectious and spreads quickly as the sale data bank video just showed. And we don't understand what the long-term impacts are. Many people who have recovered from coronavirus have ongoing health problems or low level have never been in a hospital, what's known as long COVID. Many people who asked the first question also say that more people die from the flu every year than coronavirus. Every year it's true, we have a flu season which sadly results in people dying, something that we call excess winter deaths. That's why we encourage people who are at risk of the flu and our LHS and care staff to get vaccinated every winter. Last year, about 1,900 people died from flu and pneumonia in Wales. Sadly, there have already been more than 2,500 deaths involving coronavirus. People continue to die from coronavirus in Wales. The next question is relatively similar and that's the one about the number of people in hospital dying are tiny and the threat has been blown up out of proportion. Over the last month, we've seen a rapid increase in cases across Wales. The virus returned as people came home from holiday abroad and has been spread also as people are socialised without social distancing. Crucially, most often in people's homes. The majority have had a mild illness so far but an increase in cases is followed within two to three weeks by the start of higher hospital admissions, higher critical care admissions and more deaths. Last week, an average of 73 people a day were admitted to hospital with coronavirus. The number of people in hospital with coronavirus has almost doubled in the last fortnight. And sadly, the number of people who are dying is increasing week on week. It's easy to forget what things were like just six months ago when around 150 people were admitted to hospital each day with coronavirus. And our intensive care units, including the additional capacity that the NHS created, were very close to being overrun. If we can't control the spread of the virus locally, we will see this happening again. And the next question is why other countries like Sweden, which is commonly mentioned, which didn't introduce lockdowns have lower cases than us. I understand why attempting to look at other countries which didn't go through the difficult months of a nationwide lockdown. But it's just not as simple as comparing the experience in Wales or indeed the UK with other countries which didn't lockdown. If we look at Sweden, it's home to just 10 million people and it's almost twice the size of the UK. There have been more than 5,000 coronavirus deaths in Sweden compared to hundreds in its Scandinavian neighbours which introduced stricter measures. And the final two questions are about our regulations here in Wales. First, the question about why can't I see my family but I can sit next to strangers in the pub? It's a question I often hear and it's been put to me before. I do know from my own experience that it's very difficult for families who have been separated by the pandemic. But if you're going to a pub, you cannot sit with a stranger. You can only go to a pub with someone you live with or in the same exclusive bubble with. Gathering with friends, sitting on another table is not an exception to that rule. The law is very clear about what the owner and manager of a business must do to keep everyone who uses it safe. These cover everything for maintaining social distancing and collecting people's details and booking a table to the cleaning regime which needs to be followed. We do not and would not put similar laws in place to regulate people's private homes in this way. Because so many cases of coronavirus had been linked to people gathering in each other's homes, we put limits on who and how many people we can meet socially indoors at home, in the pub and elsewhere. In areas under local restrictions, we have had to suspend bubbles except for people who live alone or our single parents. The final question, why are children still going to school when the virus is on the rise? We've been very clear that we want children back in school learning alongside their classmates. Our schools, teachers and local authorities have worked really hard over the summer to make that happen. More than eight out of ten schools in Wales have not had any cases of coronavirus since the start of the autumn term. We'll continue to do all that we can to make sure it's safe to keep children in school because it is undoubtedly better for their long-term health and well-being to be in school with other pupils and their friends than to be missing out on another term of lessons. I know there will be many more questions about coronavirus and our regulations and the First Minister will be holding and ask the FM Facebook live session tomorrow afternoon. If we are to make a difference in Wales, we need everyone to follow the rules and to do all the small things which make such a big difference. Keep your distance, wash your hands often, work from home wherever possible, wear a mask in indoor public places and think carefully about where you go and who you meet. The more places you go, the more people you see, the more contacts you have, the greater the chance of catching or passing on coronavirus. I will now take journalists' questions and we will broadcast all the answers to these questions on our social media channels. The first question I have today is from Teleri Glyn Jones from BBC Wales. Good afternoon. We've had reports from schools across Wales of pupils and teachers having to self-isolate. 456 formers at Ulchfa Comprehensive in Swansea all of Year 11 at Allyn School in Moldon. 24 membys of staff at Plas Mawr School in Cardiff self-isolating. That obviously has a massive impact on pupils' education. Are you still comfortable that this policy is working? Recently, last week, the Welsh Government said there's no evidence of transmission in schools. Is that still the case, Minister? As I've just said in my opening, more than eight out of ten schools in Wales haven't had a case of coronavirus. The evidence is that the school community that is affected, the spread is taking place outside of the school, or it's taking place within a school between adults working in the school. The figures you give about the larger groups of people who are now self-isolating, that's a challenge about how successful each school is in getting people to maintain social distance or to have in-school bubbles. So if a whole-year group is mixing, then a positive case means that a whole-year group needs to isolate. With that larger number of staff, that is because that larger number of staff are being close contacts with each other in the school environment. That's why the efforts of school leaders and local authorities have gone through to try to create an environment where people don't mix across and within year groups where possible, and for staff to follow the rules on social distancing at work are really important. But yes, I am comfortable. It's been the right thing to do. We know that if we took an alternative approach, if people were at home, we know that many of our children and young people did not gain the same benefit from home learning, both their education, but also the impact on health and well-being. So it remains the commitment and priority of this government to keep our schools open for as long as possible, and we will take measures to end other areas of activity before we close our schools. Thank you. This morning, Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer, said there wasn't an introduction of the virus by tourists over the summer coming to Wales from England. What evidence therefore supports the First Minister's request that Boris Johnson should stop English tourists in Covid hotspots travelling to Wales? That was a point about the summer, and as we saw in the summer, we did have foreign travel with people who came back, and that definitely introduced coronavirus into areas of Wales. You'll remember the flights from Zanti in particular with high numbers of people testing positive. The summer was a time where coronavirus was effectively suppressed all through the summer in all four nations of the UK. The picture we now see in all four nations of the UK is a much higher prevalence with some areas with very high concentrations. The reason why the Welsh Government has asked the UK Government to introduce travel restrictions in areas of England of high prevalence is because we do know that travel brings with it additional risks. We know that if people from Liverpool come and mix and they're in the same pub, the same environment as other people, there's a risk of there being spreading events. It's why we talk about the rules in different places and about people following those rules. We're still considering, given that the Prime Minister announced in an interview as opposed to in response to the correspondence from the First Minister, that he is not minded to introduce any travel restrictions of people from high prevalence areas in England who can travel anywhere. We're actively considering what we should do, and I've discussed it this morning with the First Minister. We have quarantine regulations for international travel, so for some of the hotspot areas in the north of England, the north-east, the north-west and the west midlands, if they were other countries or territories, we would have quarantine regulations for them to return to the UK. So we're having to consider how we use our power to protect lower prevalence areas of Wales, but at the same time we don't want to take a whole nation approach because a low prevalence area like the south-west of England, there's no good reason to prevent someone from Devon at this point in time coming to visit a pre-booked holiday or trip to Pembrokeshire. So we are thinking about how we use something that is proportionate and deals with the reality of the threat that we face. Thank you to Lerrie. We've now got James Crite-Smith from ITV Wales. Health Minister, thank you. There's a lot of talk today about 16,000 cases and even not being reported. Now, last week, Public Health Wales also tweeted that there were around 2,000 cases not included in the Welsh data. Now, is the 16,000 cases, is Wales linked to that in any way? And if so, how many Welsh cases are involved and how many potential contacts might not have been traced as a result? Well, there's part of that question that I can't answer because I wouldn't know how many contacts haven't been traced without seeing the actual figures and the number of cases and the number of contacts that they would generate. So that would be an entirely hypothetical guessing game. We are in a position where we have had a delay in a number of Welsh cases from the Lighthouse Lab system. We understand that most of the 16,000 cases that have not been reported accurately and in a timely manner into, I think, not just accurately, but that haven't been reported into contact tracing systems are largely about cities in England, but I've asked my team here to check what the position is so I know accurately where that is. I've yet to have a full report back in that because my team haven't had all the answers. As we go through the day, I do want to make clear what the actual position is with whether we're still awaiting data and what that then means, but we are seeing all those cases that are being reported are going into our own contact tracing system. So all the information we have is being followed up, but naturally I'm concerned about the potential for people who have tested positive, not knowing about that result, and crucially in contact tracing terms, us not being able to track down their contacts in the way we have successfully managed for a number of months now. I'll come to my second question shortly. So just to clarify then, the 2,000 cases that were mentioned... This is your second question James, you don't get to ask three questions, so if you want this is your second question opportunity. I was just getting some clarity minister, that's all. I will move on then. Are we heading for life of rolling lockdowns, basically turning the taps off, turning the taps on in order to contain coronavirus, and if so, how long might that go off? Well, it's the reality that we may have areas go in and out of restrictions, as the chief medical officer said. As indeed my colleague Ken Skates said last Monday, he said last Monday, it's likely that over the next few weeks and months we'll see a rolling programme of restrictions to help us respond. We need to be dynamic in our approach to responding, so actually we've already contemplated that areas may go in or out. That depends on the pattern of behaviour we see, on the pattern of the cases that we see, and our understanding of them. So today we know that on the figures that we're seeing over the weekend, that we've seen a rise in cases in both Aberystwyth and Gwynedd, but we think there's a link to a small number of student cases that has a big impact on the number of cases per 100,000 in those areas. So there may be targeted lockdowns that then get released, there may be county-wide restrictions where that's the right thing to do that may get released, but if figures do go up, then it's entirely possible that we'll have to take further measures to suppress the virus again. And we're really in this position until we have either effective treatment, which we don't yet have on a population level, or if we do have a vaccine and we get good population coverage that allows us to make different choices. So this will be a difficult autumn and winter ahead for all of us, whether we run a business, whether we're in work, whether in school, or whether we're working in our frontline health and care services. But I'm really grateful to all those people across Wales who are diligently following the rules and doing their part to help keep their local community safe and to help keep Wales safe. Thank you James and I'll get Andy Davies from Channel 4. Thank you Minister. Can I just clarify what you said to Larry earlier? Is the Welsh Government actively considering imposing some sort of quarantine regulations on people coming from high incidence areas of England into Wales? From high incidence areas across the UK, yes we're actively considering it. And what might be the timetable for that just as a follow-up? Well the timetable for that will be, we'll have to consider the matter today. We'll need to take some advice from our scientific and medical advisor, public health advisors here, and we'll then need to consider whether this is the right course of action because the measures we've introduced in Wales are about isolating areas with a higher prevalence of coronavirus and protecting lower prevalence areas too. So that underpins the rationale we've taken. It's consistent with the approach that all four UK nations have taken to international travel and quarantine restrictions where we recognise that higher prevalence areas in other parts of the world represent a risk to coronavirus being re-imported or having an opportunity to spread further within the UK. Now it's disappointing that we haven't had a response to First Minister's letter but we've seen the interview with the Prime Minister where he indicated he's not prepared to do that at this point in time. So we then have to consider our own responsibility, our own powers, and how we'll draw that in a way that is proportionate to the risk that we face. Thank you Andy, we've now got Dan Bevan from LBC. Sorry, can I ask a second question? You've had your two questions, thanks Andy. Now you've got Dan Bevan from LBC. I was trying to clarify your answer on the first one. No, you've asked two questions. Dan Bevan from LBC. Thank you Minister, good afternoon. We've seen more reports this weekend from police being called to student populated areas like Cataise and Cardiff. With those areas, house parties, as we've already seen, can lead to mass spreading of the virus. Do you think the message is getting through to students? And also do you think they understand the implications that having house parties can have? Well, I don't think it's just an issue for the student population. If you consider the cases that we've seen and the animation we showed from the rise in actual confirmed cases at the end of August, that spread was taking place well before students started moving around the UK in larger numbers. It's an issue for all of us, whether young adults, whether students, whether older adults. It's really about understanding, it's our indoor contacts and having that close contact, not following social distancing that is leading to the significant spread of coronavirus over the last five weeks. And that is causing real harm. You've seen the numbers of hospital admissions going up. We are reporting more deaths now each week than we were through August, where we had many days where no deaths were reported at all. So the harm is there. And the message is for all of us, not just for students, for all of us. Younger adults may be less susceptible, but there is a risk to them. There is an obvious risk of spread to other people that they will come in contact with as well who may not be so fortunate. So that's the challenge for all of us. It's a significant change the way we are used to live our lives and times before coronavirus. But we all need to learn from the last six months and reduce our risk and to all play our part in helping to keep well safe. Thank you. And picking up on something that you spoke to James about, the rolling lockdowns that the chief medical officer has discussed. At the moment, only one place in the UK has come out of a local lockdown nowhere in Wales. So what is the criteria at the moment being looked at for somewhere coming out of local lockdown here in Wales? And is there any area that's close? Well, the criteria we're using is partly about the data and it's also then about the broadband talents we get from our public health officials and our test trace protect teams. So we're looking at, wanting to see a significant and sustained reduction below 50 cases per 100,000. We're looking to see the positivity rate, the number of positive test cases per 100. We want to see that significantly reduced below 5 at very least. And if we see those two data figures coming down, it will allow us to consider that broader community intelligence of where the spread is or isn't taking place. And to give you an example of where we didn't introduce restrictions again in the key pack incident in Murther where actually the rates at Murther was the highest reporting in local authority per 100,000 cases. We knew where that was. We also knew that it wasn't a matter of community transmission. There was a particular workforce community that was affected. We isolated that group of people successfully and avoided community spread at the time. If we see the figures go in the right direction and if that community intelligence is there from our test trace protect teams, that we understand the spread that is and isn't taking place, it will allow us to consider taking different measures. And Caerphilly over just a period of a few weeks has seen a sustained reduction. We want to see that reduced further to allow us to seriously consider the opportunity to ease some of the restrictions in the Caerphilly County Borough area. So, we're course optimistic about what might be possible, but it does so rely on all of us doing our part as well. Thank you, Dan. I've got Mark Smith from Wales Online. Thank you very much indeed, Health Minister. Firstly, I was wondering if you could explain why there appears to be a growing number of positive cases being reported by public health Wales from people resident outside Wales, and would you be able to tell us the importance of including them in the Welsh daily stats? We think this is largely driven by new student tests, and so where people are travelling into Wales and asking for their address off and giving their home address and where they've moved from. But we're looking to bottom that out to understand all of that within the figures that we have. So, it's something that I'm aware of, and I'm keen to understand in more detail what that means. But that's my understanding at present that it's largely about a population that has moved into Wales and still considers their home address to be somewhere else rather than where they're living now. But what we do understand is that the figures, the data that we get is still going into our system for contact tracing to take place. So, it isn't hampering our contact tracing service, but I do accept this point to clarify in the way we present our data to the public. Thank you very much indeed, and my second question was briefly mentioned by you earlier. I've spoken to patients and NHS staff who are suffering with the effects of COVID-19 many months on from their initial symptoms. What is the Welsh NHS and the Welsh Government doing to support people with so-called long COVID, and what help and rehabilitation will be given to those who were clinically diagnosed with the condition, but were never given a positive test to ensure that they don't slip through the net for treatment? Well, we're still learning about long COVID. We're still learning about the long-term impacts for people who have had COVID, but haven't necessarily been in hospital or still suffering post-effects. And it's part of the challenge that I was mentioning earlier in the opening of today's conference, and that is that this is a new disease that we're still learning about now. The Welsh Government is involved with other governments in the UK in research about long COVID. That's both about understanding how and why it affects some people in different ways, but crucially to understand how we help support people in their rehabilitation and recuperation and what we'll need to do. And as ever, if people are concerned their conditions haven't been picked up and haven't been recognised by treating healthcare professionals, they should have that conversation with them. Because I recognise that for people with long COVID, it is a particularly debilitating condition, and there's real concern about the understanding that doesn't exist about how to help them through. Now, the puzzle that new coronavirus has brought into to us is not one we have all the answers to. That's why the research we're undertaking is hugely important. And again, I'm tremendously grateful to people in Wales who have volunteered to take part in that research. Whether as those are a professional research end or indeed members of the public who are keen for their condition to be better understood. So I hope we'll have more in the coming weeks and months. And certainly when we do have more information about long COVID, I'll be happy to make that clear in public and crucially to make clear what that means in terms of our treatment, rehabilitation and recovery options. Thank you, Mark. Now I've got Rupert Evelin from ITN. Thank you very much. Can I just ask about local lockdowns in Caerphilly? It's almost a month now since Caerphilly was put into a local lockdown. The stats appear and have appeared for some time to be going the right direction then. Why is Caerphilly not out of local lockdown measures yet? And when is that likely to happen? Well, Caerphilly is about 50 per 100,000, so still fairly high. I know it was an authority move in the other direction. We'd be considering intervention measures. Now we still also see a positivity figure in Caerphilly that is above four. So it's still somewhere on our concern list. And what we want to do is to see a further reduction in new coronavirus cases so that we can have much greater level of confidence that the virus is being effectively suppressed together with, as I said in answer to earlier questions, that community intelligence about where new cases are. Because if we understand that those cases are linked in the clusters we already understand, that gives us a level of confidence. We can have a smart hyper lockdown around families and cluster groups. The challenge that led to a number of areas going into local restrictions is that we've seen new cases popping up that are not linked to other clusters. And those unexplained events are a real cause for concern. They give us evidence about community transmission taking place. So it isn't a question of there is a number of days when we can be confident that, say, in three days' time we'll be able to take restrictions off in order to understand the figures. And we're in a period of reviewing those figures, not just daily when the figures come in, but a formal review every week. And we'll consider that together with the Health Service, Public Health Wales, and, of course, the local authority and other partners. And my second question. It's my understanding that you and your officials believe that your approach to local lockdowns is fundamentally working, which is a good thing. Why do you think it's better than the way they're doing it in England? Can you explain that to us? Well, I'm not in the decision-making tree in England, but you've heard the well-advertised concerns about local authorities hearing a decision that's been made rather than being part of it. We deliberately take an approach that draws all of those partners together. So in each of the local restriction decisions that we've had, before ministers make a decision, we have a conversation with the police, with the local authority, with the leader and the chief executive involved. We have a conversation with Public Health Wales and the local health board. And we also have a conversation with our chief medical officer's department and our chief scientific advisers on health. That is a joint conversation all at the same time to discuss what happens. And we normally get a series of suggested recommendations from the local incident management team within that area. That means we're all pooling and sharing the intelligence and resource we have. It's also the case that local authorities have also got a clear line of sight in every part of Wales about the intelligence we're getting from our Test Trace Protect service because it's housed in local authorities, it's local authority staff doing the contact tracing and it's a real partnership with our National Health Service here in Wales. So I think the partners come to the table for a start. They come to the table with lots of the same information. We share what's there and we then have to go away and make choices upon that. Now, that isn't the picture that I hear described in England but of course I'm not responsible for the way they do that and other people in England may claim the system runs differently but I think the way that I describe the Welsh system it really does mean that people have confidence in the data, in the information and then ultimately the choices that are being made. Thank you, Rupert. I've got Lydia Morris in the Daily Post. Good afternoon, Minister. How likely is it that Gwynedd and Anglesey will follow suit on local lockdown? Well, it isn't clear that we need to take any action in those areas. Anglesey isn't at the point where we think that we would need to take action based upon the figures. With Gwynedd, we're seeing a rise in cases but we think that is linked to a handful of positive cases within the student population. Now, we're looking to separate that out in exactly the same way we have done with contained communities in the past so think about two sisters in Anglesey, think about Rowan Foods and Wrexham Keypack in Merthyr. If we understand that's what's happening and that's my understanding at present then what we need to do is to isolate part of the community where the infection is actually there and where there are new cases and not take collective action across the whole community. That may mean that some people in part of the student community may need to isolate but not the whole student community so we're treating our students exactly as we would do with any other part of the population if that's the case then we may not need to take action in Gwynedd or Anglesey any other parts of Wales that don't currently have restrictions so it'll be that open process in discussing it with local partners and understanding the intelligence and the information as I've described earlier. Has there been a notable drop in cases since the four North Wales counties were locked down last week? No, there's been a rise in cases since we introduced those local restriction measures and you'll recall that we introduced those restrictions when we could see that a rise was taking place and I appreciate that some local actors doubted the need for the action that we'd taken and that was disappointing. Some of those elected representatives in particular would have expected to be a deal more supportive and responsible. We have those seen that despite us isolating those four authorities with the travel restrictions as we thought would be the case there would be an increase in positive cases that came from that because we had early evidence of community transmission. As we've seen in Caerphilly for example it's likely that we'll see an increase for at least a period of a fortnight or so potentially two or three weeks before we start to see if those cases are going to start falling back down again but as you'll have seen all four local authorities where we've introduced restrictions in North Wales have seen an increase over the past week I expect we may see more cases over the next week we'll then need to look at the end of the first two weeks whether there is evidence that cases are falling and that's crucially about the community response and as I say I really am tremendously grateful to all those people in every part of Wales who are doing their very best to follow the rules and to find a way to live their lives within the rules rather than looking for a reason to get around the rules or to find a loophole. Thank you Lydia. We've now got Rob Taylor from rexham.com Good afternoon Minister you mentioned isolating North Wales counties there since lockdown was enacted with other range of reports of cross border issues be it rexham to Flintshire or even England and to use one specific example an off-roading event attracting a large number of people from the north west of England to place in rexham yesterday due to local concerns the police did attend and the event appeared to continue as planned presumably because no rules were broken is that cross border travel and such events the regulations operating as you planned or do the regulations need improvement? People can travel within county but they need to follow the rules when they do so on social distancing so it may be possible for events particularly outdoor events to go ahead within that county but there should not be cross border travel and I would certainly not consider it to be a reasonable excuse to travel from outside a county with local restrictions for an off-road event people need to think seriously about how they follow the rules not try to distinguish out what is plainly not considered to be within them and we're at a point of real maximum seriousness and risk for the country I said previously I think we're in an equivalent position to February I think we're much more now like the end of February in the start of March we're seeing a rising tide of cases we're taking earlier action because our line of sight our local intelligence about what is happening our national intelligence picture is much clearer than it was in February and March but it is not inevitable that the tide of coronavirus cases recedes the cases will rise if people don't look again at how we avoid contacts minimise the groups of people we're indoors with especially not to follow those rules on regular washing of hands maintaining social distancing wearing a mask where you should do in accordance with the laws of Wales Thank you Last week RCT council tweeted a heat map style of graphic for COVID spread per lower super output areas and you appear to have used similar data for the animation earlier in this presentation as it appears that information is around and it's localised will similar information be made public for around Wales or is it just localised lockdown areas and how regular will it be updated? The animation that we've provided today will be on our social media channels for people to be able to view it and to share it I'm absolutely looking at how we provide a regular and reliable update in data we need to make sure that in areas of lower preface we're not identifying individuals in the way we present our data and the maps but I'm confident we can find a way through to present that and then to be able to announce how it's going to be presented and then announce the regular pattern for doing so as well Thanks Rob and I've got Tom Magnum Thank you Minister, good afternoon My first question is about emergency cards for unpaid carers in Wales Viewers tell us that while these inform others in an emergency they don't critically help get urgent priority supplies in a lockdown Ceredigion Council has today announced the CARERS ID card that addresses this issue You've spoken supportively about unpaid carers in previous briefings so do you agree that your Welsh councils should have announced a similar measure much earlier and why? Well I'm not aware of the exact scheme you've referred to in Ceredigion I'd be very interested in learning more about it and of course not just in working with Ceredigion Council we're looking at other authorities I've looked at other ways to try to support unpaid carers so I'd be very interested in learning more about the data of the scheme and after we finish Tom I'll go and speak to my officials to understand what Ceredigion have announced because actually myself and the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services have a meeting later this week with all of the cabinet members for social care across Wales across all 22 authorities so it's one of our regular points to understand the pressures they're dealing with locally and how we can try and share good practice to see what works because in a small country like Wales we should be able to see to try and what works to see if it really does work and then to transfer it across the country so it's going to be useful and helpful example Tom Thank you We'll certainly pass on the details after this briefing but it's not just about ID cards there seems to be a lack of understanding of grassroots one viewer in south Wales echoes the experience of others she tells me that under a screen saying if you're a carer and make yourself known we can help she was told by the senior triads nurse in A&E you won't get seen any quicker because you're a carer alone I can assure you with that so how will you address this issue of grassroots services apparently having little or no respect for unpaid carers despite carer digging and council and your government's best efforts I think Tom we need to understand the particular circumstance of each service and what it's trying to do in a healthcare setting if you need to prioritise people it should be on the basis of their clinical need but it may well be that someone who isn't a carer has a much greater clinical need and I think if we try to intervene and interrupt that we'll end up causing a much wider series of injustices but in the broader way in which our services support carers that is what we're actively trying to do so the practical example you've given her about caradigion we're looking to support unpaid carers in a different way as well and I hope the deputy minister will be able to make announcements about that in the coming few weeks on active part of learning and as I said before we are tremendously grateful for all those people who are unpaid carers the work they've done and the extra responsibility they've had for the first six months of this pandemic and frankly the reality that over the course of the autumn and winter we're probably going to ask more of our unpaid carers people like you and me I guess Tom who look after people in our family and friends circle and do it because of how we feel about them but it's how we support those people to do that and the real benefit that brings not just to the carer but to the loved one or the friend that they're actually caring for as well thanks Tom we've now finally got Dan Barnes from the South Wales Argus very much going back to local lockdown can I ask whether the local lockdowns in Blaenau Gwent and to Vine are going to be reviewed and if so what's the time frame for that we review all of the local restrictions after the first two weeks and have a regular weekly review on the positive side it's possible that we're starting to see a levelling off in the growth numbers we saw quite high growth you'll be aware and Blaenau Gwent in particular but I've got some more optimism about the figures we've published over the weekend that we're seeing a levelling off in growth still growth but if we've managed to slightly flatten the curve that's good news and it shows the restrictions are working and they're working because people are changing the way that behave and thinking again about the number of contacts and how they see people and again trying to restrict that indoor content which I know comes at a cost but actually in terms of avoiding a much greater cost of real harm being done in our communities it's the right thing to do so again I'm very grateful to people on Blaenau Gwent, to Vine and across Wales we'll review those measures after two weeks and we'll then have a regular weekly review if the measures do continue very much that kind of leads into my second question just on a wider level across Gwent do you think that all the areas in local lockdown are on the right track and what would be a message to the people living there? Well actually we're seeing in Gwent some positive moves in all four of the counties that currently have measures they're still above the line where we'd want to take action to ease restrictions but it really is to thank people again who have followed and supported the restrictions that we put in place to avoid further harm from coronavirus your efforts and the way you're choosing to live your lives are making a difference we're asking for some more from people to keep on following the restrictions because that is the path that would then allow us to ease some of those restrictions for the future so we'll continue to review this with leaders of local authorities with Public Health Wales and with the Anarang Bevan University Health Board we'll look for a way where we can safely ease those restrictions to give people more freedoms to live their life and to have human contact but it all comes with the challenge about then understanding the risks that we have and as I said doing the small things wearing a face covering where we need to making sure that we wash our hands regularly and making sure that we avoid contact with other people where we don't need it in particular that point about social distancing and in this I'm tremendously grateful to all that are done by our front line health and social care professionals but equally as I say very grateful to the public who are following the rules thank you very much Dan that concludes today's press briefing I look forward to seeing you all in the future as we're answering questions again