 passed and that, good afternoon everybody we're here today to discuss the next steps we are taking to enable some of our young people to return to school and I'm joined by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dratha Jones I would first like to put on the record my thanks to Dr Jones and his team who continue to work around the clock throughout this pandemic ensuring that ministers have the most up to date and accurate advice and evidence when we're making our decisions. Before I go on the subject of schools, I'd like to start with an update on vaccinations. The very latest figures, published just minutes ago, show that we've now passed half a million mark for vaccinations here in Wales and I am sure all of you would like to commend our NHS and everyone else involved in this tremendous effort. So on to education. Our independent technical advisory group are today publishing oedd yna yma felly rydyn ni'n gweithio'r ddau cyflwyno'r ddau. Mae'r gweithio'r ddau ar gyfer gyntaf oedd yn fawr, yn ddau'r cyffrediniddol gyda'r rhannu o'r haf, byddai'r ddau'r rhannu o'r gweithio'r ddau, yn y ddau'r rhai ddych chi'n gallu ddau. Yn oed, dr Jones oedd yn ffraith iawn i chi'n edrych a fyddio'r ddau'u ddau. Mr Jones. The Technical Advisory group has published a new paper today showing the current position of the pandemic in Wales and providing advice about how schools could start to safely open. We are clear that the ability to relax the current restrictions remains limited by the presence of a new variant which is more transmissible than before. However, with the R-value currently below one there is some headroom for a phazed return of primary school children iawn yn rhoi ei wneud roi'r rysg ond i'r ddweud o'r rhannu yn yllewyr. Felly, o'r ddweud o rheswm yn ystod, mae'n cael ei wneud o'r cyfnoddau sydd ymddangos yn y rhan o ddata. Rwy'n ffawr o'r ddweud o'r cyfle, yw eu chlas o'r cyfnoddau cyfnoddau a'r gwychau rhaid o'r positifitau yn gweithio. Ac mae'n gweithio bod i chi'n ddim gweithio cyfnoddau. Felly mae'n gwneud i'r cerasio y bwysig yw iawn o'r nu gliriaeth'r Cymru. Mae'n gwneud i'r cysylltu yn cyflod o'r gwaith yn cysylltu'r cyffech fel ar gyrgynno'r awliwn. Mae gennym wnaeth gyda'r cyflu ym 650 cyffredinol i 200,000 utensiliadau a 100,000 gyrsgol wedi meddwl i wedi hwnnw'n 127 cyffredinol i'n gael cyffredinol. Rwy'n farchifed. Mae'r gwaith ymlaen o'r oeddan nhw yn y swyddfa'n gwneud o'r sefydglwyr hynny. Felly, rydyn jagi'n ganwydda i, os yma ar y cram y newydd, a mae ansgen o'r teimlo wrth sy'n gwahanol gan gael a llach. Rydyn ni'n gweithio i'r lluddfa ymlaen ag enghraifftiaid. i ddod o'r wneud o'r cefnod o'r cyfrannu cyfrannu sy'n rhanion rhagorol yn cyfrannu gyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu. Felly, mae'r llyfrfyniadau ydi'r gweld o'r hollu arlaen ddyddol yn y bram Daiddel Cymru â'r cyfrannu cyfrannu ac yn cael ei wneud i'r rhagorol yn cael ei ddysgu'n gallu cyfrannu cyfrannu ar y NHS. Yn cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu deall, Has stabilised and is starting to fall. We will monitor this carefully alongside our other indicators in assessing the potential impact of any changes before each new phase of more pupils returning. Keeping the reproduction number, the R-rate below 1 is also an important measure in allowing a return to more face-to-face learning. As you can see from this slide, which is based on sage estimates, Mae'r rhaid i'w gwaith yn gweithio yn yng nghreifftad yng Nghreifftad yna yn 0.7 a 0.9, yn cael ei ddweud gan gweithio ei gael. Mae'r rhaid i'w ddweud i'w ei ddweud yn y tymru, ac yn meddwl i'r cwestiynau phobl yma. Felly, rydw i'n meddwl i'n meddwl i'w ddweud â'r prifodau ond y brifedig o'r cysylltau. Wedi ymwneud y Ffacsinatio Wale, a dwi'n gallu gweld yn ffacinatio'r 100,000 diwrnod a'u wneud. Dwi'n nhw eu gyrddw i'ch cyflogwad ar gyfer y Facsinatio, ac mae'r mwylo wedi cael y gwaeth gorffordi ym 123,000 ym 502,000 diwrnod wedi ym 1 yn 6 o pobylion cyd-io'r 1rhyw gael y ffacinatio. Ymwneud angen i gweld ei wneud ar rwylai cyflogwadau yn Ffacsinatio. Lleidon o unig, rydyn ni'n ffordd mai gweithio o'r perffodus ar gyfer o'r unrhyw unrhyw o'r ddechrau yng Nghymru. A wnee'n digwydd gweithio'r parwyr o holl failedaniaethau ar gyfer y frontiau ar gyfer y frontiau ar wefydd. Diolch yn fawr, dr Sir James. Roedd amlwg i fod ar gyfer y frontiau ar gyfer y frontiau ar gyfer y frontiau. Sïn nhw, mynd i nghymru sydd wedyn amgylchedd wedi bod yMUSIC yn gwybod efo rhan o'r cych-erpen a daeth ar gyfer y maen nhw yma. Ond oherwydd, fel y gwneud o modd ar hyn yn gwiradol â'r gennych, fe mae'r rhan o'r gychwp, oherwydd mae'r ffordd ac yn fflexibol sy'n gwiradol. A fydd efo'r rhan o'r gwiradol ar y 22 yma, fy mhwyrestau Cymru o wneud am gyflym i gyrfa ar buffyn. Gwybod y gydrygiadau cysylltio a'r bwlynedd yn gwybod hwnnw, A fyddwch assesio, ar gyfer gael gweithio Explorer yma, byddwch gweithio i weithio ddiwethaf fel ychydig iaeth y dybbwch ar ddestunio. Rwy'r pwywyddoch gyda'r meddylion gwirioneddau amddorol i'r ddiwethaf o'r gweithio ar gyfer gweithio i'r gweithio a'u weithio ar gyfer gan gweld, rydyn ni'n credu'r hyn yarddau ar gyfer gweithio mewn gwblodol. Byddwch ar gweithio cyfan gweithio, mae'n detynnu gwirioneddau, fel ddweud o'r mlyneddol clwseidio. Rydym, mae'n dweud bod ymddangos o'r drifweinidol ar y leirloedd mewn yn ddweud, lle mae'n ddweud o'r cyfrifiadau o'r rhan o'r pethau o'r cyfrifiadau o'r cyfrifiadau a'r cyfrifiadau. Ddiwyliad ar y ddechrau cyfrifiadau ym Mhwyaf oedd ymddangosol, ddod o'r ddweud i ddefnyddio ar gyfer ddechrau, rydw i'n dweud i gweithio mewn gwirioneddol i ddweud ar gyfer ddweud o'r cyfrifiadau ar yr edrych cylluminadau yng Ngholffydd. That's includes the introduction of twice weekly testing for staff members as well as increased natural support for new face coverings. We are providing an additional £5 million to support schools, colleges and local authorities to invest further in items that they need to keep their premises safe. As we all know, you only get one childhood which is exactly why ond yn yr wyf yn ychydig i ddim yn ei chyfnodol i bobl gyda'r ysgol so rhai i chi'r gwneud amgylcheddau hynny. Ond ydych chi'n gwneud i wneud i'r ddweud ffordd. Rwy'n ddweud, wedi hyn o ddweud yna, y ddweud i'r ysgol yma'r ysgol yn wneud, Girls are being taught the ways we need to follow as they learn. But it is the added movement around them that contributes to the R number. So I must make a plea to all learners, to parents and carers, please continue to follow the guidelines. Ieithio eich gweld y gwirionedd, sy'n gweithio'r lluniau arall y gwaith yma. Thank you very much, and we'll now turn to questions from our colleagues in the media. I understand this afternoon that we're going to start with Telericle-Lyn Jones over at BBC Wales. Brunhanda, Telericle. Telericle, we've done, thank you so much. When will parents of older children find out whether people will be able to go back to school? dystiad yn ymgyrch gyda'r rhanol? Byddwn y clyw o'r cyflawn o'r peth dyddion o mynd i'w gweithio rhannu yn ystyried o gael ymddangos rydych yn fuddio mwyaf ysbytyn o gyflawniaeth o yr ymgyrch ceroenodau amser. Ymgyrch yn ystod o'i ŵr yn mynd yw hefyd yn effaith ac yn ystod ymgyrchu ac yn ymgyrch gyda chi'n ddigas o ddim oed gyda ni'n gobeithio eich lluniau. Fy lle, o'r maen nhw'n cymuned fydd achos eu maen nhw'n ffais o'r Llein i'ch gwneud i ni hefyd o subriio'r strategiaethau sydd dr Jonigol yn yn ddechrau fel eu bwysig i'ch cyffrediniaeth ac mae canwg hyn ardenni i wneud a'n bysiau i fynd i allu'r rhaid. Mae hyn yn dweud yn gobeithio'r lluniau eich maen nhw. Wrth fyos yn cwyldu sy'n ei wneud y gwbl yn ffais y Llein i'r cael wneud iawn o'r grwp felly y gallwch yn gwybod wedi bod llwyf diolch yn ei ddweud yng ngyru yng ngyllwll. Roeddon ni'n gwybod per lleol sy'n cael eu pryd yn gallu'r dweud ac yna'r pryd yn cael ei ddweud yn gwahodd fel y gallu uwch yn ymlaenol, yn gweithio'r masch, alw'r gweithio neu enghraifft o'r pergy rider, fel gyflym y bydd yn ei fawn i'r chi'n proceed o'r tynnu neu'n llwyificantau hynny oherwydd mae'r ffordd yn eich bwysig yn y troi'r gweithio'n holl o'r holl gennym ni'n gweithio y troi'r holl. Fyddech chi'n ffraid o'r holl, ei ddweudio'n holl, wedi ei bodai'r troi'r holl, a mae'n ddweudio'r rhaglen a'r ddweudio'r rhaglen yn y ddweudio'r digwydd bod hynny'n pan ddim yn meddwl i'r ddwylliant i'r hefyd o'r holl o'r holl yw'r holl o'r holl, iawn i'r blaen'r gwahau cyflusoedd i'r lluniau allan ond iawn o'r blaen gallu cramiaeth bowd i'r blaen. Yn hynny'n cael eu gofyniaid, byddwn ni'n fremhysg gyda'r bach sydd ei kneirwyd ar y cyflusoedd eu cyflu ar gyfer y lle i bach. Ar ei gofyniaid, koal ar gyfer y lluniau, mae'n trwy gwaith i wahanol ar gweithio o'r bach sydd wedi ar gyfer y lluniau. Yr amgylch yn ystod. Mae'r ystyried o ddwygol sydd wedi'i fyddwch amdano ar y ôl, ond rwy'n gweithio'n fyddi'r lleol. Fyrddwn i ddweud yn mynd i chi fod yn ysgwrdd â'r ysgwrdd. Yn amser, mae'n ddweud, os yw'n gweithio'n rheiddiadau yma, mae'n ddweud yn ysgrifennu o mynd i 1,000 o'r ysgrifennu a'r ysgrifennu o'r ysgrifennu o'i gael erbyn ystod, â'r ffwyrdd o'r ardal, gan gweithio'r hwnnw. Felly, wrth iddo eu bod yn ddweud yn ei ddweud y fwy swyddfa ar snor unig, fe ydych chi wedi'w ddweud ar gyflwyfr o'r golygu ar y s antillol, ac roedd ar gyflwyfr o'r siant, ac roedd yn ei wneud ar gyflwyfr o'r siant. Mae ei bod i'n gofudd i'r siant, ac mae yn fantas, i ni ar hyn ysgrifennu wrth iddyn nhw, ac oes yn eitem eu dod yw'r gwirionedd ymgyffredol. Y sgol wedi'u daeth blaenau iddo yn byw fel o'i a oeddo ar gyflwyfr o'r golygu ar gyflwyfr o'r siant. C Tir, rwyf yn dweud i dyn nhw i gyhoeddwch yr ysgrifennu yn dweud a hefyd yn yn dod i'w myfyrwyr. Fy hoffwch y persoesion bod chi'n gweithlau, chi'n eistedd i'r ysgrifennu sydd gweithlu am ei chael gwir gweithledig. Erdoedd yn gweld i'n gweld i'r gyfyrwyr a'i sydd gennymio rwyf yn y dyn nhw i'n gweithlau. Aelod y gallai mewn chyfodol wedi gwir breathfynfaen ac yn gweithlo sydd fydd yn maen nhw i'n gweithlau fwrdd nag i'r ysgrifennu. Adrian Masters now at ITV Wales. Good afternoon, Adrian. Good afternoon, Minister, and this is a question both for you and for Dr Jones, please. I'm at Abervargoid Primary School, where they very much would like to be back fully in action at some stage, but they've seen data, they've been discussing data today, which shows that the number of cases in primary schools remains very high since September 268 compared to 100 in secondary schools they see. As I said, at Abervargoid, they very much want to return fully into action, but can you reassure them with that data that it'll be safe for them to do so? Well, thank you, Adrian, and like you, I speak to teachers and head teachers every week, and the consistent message I get from them, from every corner of the country, is that they are desperate to get back to teaching their classes out at school, and sometimes I have to reign in their enthusiasm, only this week, talking to a head teacher of the North Wales who wants all of his children back. But we have to get that balance right between making sure that we can get some of our children back to face-to-face learning, but doing that in a way that is about assuring the safety within our school environments of building confidence, as well as managing the overall effect of more face-to-face learning on the pandemic. But let's be absolutely clear, head teachers and teachers and local authorities have done an excellent job in keeping the school environment as safe as it possibly can be, and that's why we're announcing additional monies today to help them carry on doing that. It is the activities around schools that cause us greater levels of concern, and Dr Jones can talk about the ONF survey and testing data that shows that for teachers and teaching assistants, then really they can have assurance that their occupation is not putting them at risk. I mean, the evidence is still very strong that in the youngest children transmission is low. They do not get severe forms of the disease and they do not tend to transmit it as much as adults or even elder teenagers. The one determinant that's been more obvious than any other throughout the pandemic has been the relationship between numbers of cases for pupils in schools and in teachers and the rates of transmission in the community. And we do know that, clearly before Christmas, our transmission rates in the community were relatively high and so it was not surprising there were cases in schools. But the transmission rates, as I described just now, are much lower now and I hope they will continue to fall and so we anticipate a lot less cases in schools than before. Even though transmission rates were so high before in the autumn with the presence of the new variant, the evidence around teachers' outcomes from a point of view of COVID infection and hospitalisation and death were very favourable during that time. Actually teachers have very similar rates of COVID to the general population even when community case rates were so high. So I think there's every reason to feel quite confident that the school environment is safe with the mitigations that the teachers have all to an amazing extent put in place. Thank you both for that and it's the second question also to both of you please. The Police Federation of Wales has written an open letter to the First Minister saying that the Welsh Government has renaid done its commitment to protect police officers by not prioritising them for vaccines. So I wonder if I could get your response from the Welsh Government minister and from Dr Jones to the suggestion that police officers feel unprotected on the frontline? Well Adrian, I just want to begin by thanking police officers the length and breadth of Wales that have been played a really, really important part in helping the government with the pandemic and understandably I understand they're very much on the frontline and I understand why they would feel concerned. I have to say we are following the advice of independent experts in the field of vaccines and immunisation. The JCVI guidance is being followed by all four parts of the United Kingdom and that vaccination priority list is aimed at reducing death. It's aimed at those individuals who we know sadly if they contract COVID-19 they are more likely to die from it and that's why those groups are being prioritised and of course once the first one to nine groups are completed and we are doing so well and we're on track to do that by the spring then obviously we await further JCVI advice as to who should be vaccinated next. I understand why police are anxious to be vaccinated of course I do as along with other frontline workers but we need to follow the JCVI advice which is aimed at reducing the number of deaths from this terrible disease. Yes I mean there are a number of frontline workers who clearly are feeling frightened about their risk when they come across people who may be infectious even if they're asymptomatic and one completely understands that. At the moment though the rollout of the vaccination programme is not about who we value most or about those that are more kind of meaningful to our society in any way it is absolutely focused on this issue of reducing hospitalisation and death due to COVID and the main risk factor for death due to COVID is age. We also know that those in the clinically extremely vulnerable group are at higher risk and they are part of the JCVI cohorts that we're going through now. If there were police officers or teachers who had chronic conditions who put them at risk they would be part of these cohorts now as well but the absolute focus first of all is to reduce the avoidable death rate that this is nothing about not valuing people's massive contribution to society but it is absolutely focused on reducing deaths. Thank you both. Thank you Adrian and we'll now move to Thomas Evans at S4C. You say that education is a priority for the Welsh Government so can we expect all pupils to be back in school before other level 4 lockdown restrictions are eased and to Dr Jones how realistic do you think it is that we'll see all pupils back in schools before Easter? Well Thomas it is absolutely our priority and we will take every opportunity that is afforded to us by this virus and by the people of Wales who have worked so hard to drive those case rates down and to follow the rules and so we will use every opportunity as part of the review process to use the headroom that has been created by people's sacrifice and hard work to get more children and young people back to face to face teaching. We need to do that gradually and we need to do it carefully and we need to monitor the impact of that but I can assure you in every discussion prioritising education is what the Welsh Government will do. Children and young people do I fear run the risk of being innocent bystanders in this pandemic. The pandemic doesn't threaten them directly so much as adults but they are threatened by the control measures we have to put in place to protect everyone else and so we are committed to seeing children back to school. It is not possible for all children to go back to school now we do not have enough headroom for that but we will be evaluating this change and if we can do more as the minister has said then more will be done. There are some reasons to feel that the position is more favourable than it was though. Case rates are falling and I hope will continue to fall because a lot of measures are still going to be in place for the time being. We are entering spring or it's not too far away so the weather will get better and we think that seasonal effect will help and of course as we roll out the vaccine the situation improves as well so I do hope that it will not be too long before children can get back to school but we are not in that position now. Back to you Thomas. Diolch am hynny. We have spoken to a teaching union who has called on the Welsh Government to guarantee jobs throughout their induction periods for training teachers who have had their education disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have spoken about the need for additional staff and what the Welsh Government has already done to ensure that so will you as education minister make this pledge? Well we're very keen first of all to ensure that those teachers that are currently training to become fully qualified members of the profession are supported in that and our ITE providers, our universities are working really hard and can I say a massive thank you to what their host schools and their partner schools who are continuing to support the trainee ships of teachers it would have been so easy for those schools not to take part in those partnerships with their higher education institutions they've stepped up to the plate to ensure that that supply of teachers new teachers into the profession is able to happen. As I've said we've been able to employ an additional over a thousand members of staff in this academic year and we will continue to work to develop our recovery plans and I see an absolute future for our newly qualified staff in those programmes as we as we move forward. Now going to Adam Hale at the PA, Adam. Good afternoon to both of you. This one for the education minister. You've announced that pupils in Wales will return to the classroom earlier than those over in England helped by more favourable conditions here but lifting Wales out of lockdown will that have to happen at the same time as England is able to consider all the issues we've learned during the pandemic relate to issues of cross border travel? Well I think it's right to acknowledge that we're able to make this announcement today with regards to younger pupils returning to school because of the the figures that Dr Jones has just spoken about fortunately here in Wales we've been able to drive those figures down to such an extent that we can make this positive announcement as of our colleagues in Scotland who find themselves in a similar position. As regards to other aspects of the lockdown, the First Minister and the Welsh Government will always take steps that are the right steps for Wales. It would not be right for us to deprive children of their education in Wales when we're able to get some more back because unfortunately cases haven't dropped so far in another part of the United Kingdom but clearly for the reasons of clarity and people being able to understand and cross border travel we know that sometimes it can be complicated and where we are able to work in tandem across the nations of the United Kingdom then we will do that but clearly today we are able because the headroom has been created by the Welsh people to be able to get our children back to school after a half term for this particular age group. Thank you and for both thought or either review for this one. The UK government has said that all adults aged 50 and over should receive the coronavirus vaccine by May completed the JCVI's initial priority list. Is this a target that the Welsh Government recognises, is aiming for and has confidence to fit in? Well my goodness me you'll have seen from the slides the tremendous efforts that have gone on in Wales to add real pace to the vaccination programme. We are vaccinating more people per head of 100,000 than any other part of the United Kingdom and that is a tremendous logistical professional and indeed a community response. There are lots of volunteers out there that are assisting our NHS, our primary care practitioners and GP surgeries. It's a tremendous effort but Dr Jones I think we're on track to do just that aren't we? Yeah I don't really have anything to add that is that is the plan. Thank you very much we're now going to Abby Wittigedd Wales online. Good afternoon Abby. Good afternoon Minister. The first question is directed at Dr Jones. Good afternoon Dr Jones. I'm sure everyone will be pleased to see that younger children can start going back. You said just now that you were evaluating when older children can go back and get them back more perhaps by next term. Who knows what are the criteria you're actually looking at? Where do we have to be on all those measurements you know the infection rates, the capacity in the NHS? Is there an actual criteria where you say now we can start bringing those older children back and if there isn't why isn't there? At times during the pandemic it's been quite difficult to understand the impact of opening schools because it's happened as a time when lots of other changes have happened as well but this is the most important change that's likely to happen over the next two or three weeks in Wales and so we will be able to evaluate it quite clearly. It'll take two or three weeks before its impact on numbers comes through but we will be looking at these sort of figures that I've shown you so we'll be looking overall at the case rates because a lot of other restrictions are going to be in place still exerting downward pressure on the R value, we'll be looking at test positivity rates, we'll be looking at the pressure on the NHS and if we can see that the situation is still, we still have headroom without R going above 1 then we can do more so those are the sort of measures that we will be looking at and it's also it's not just the absolute values it's also the direction of travel are things improving and on improving trajectory. Thank you. This next question is for the minister earlier this week minister you said to me that we needed to have a debate about perhaps shortening some holidays and perhaps having a longer fire break after in the autumn etc and or perhaps a longer Christmas holiday. What are you basing that on? Are you expecting next academic year also to be disrupted or are you just contingency planning in case it would be when you're suggesting those things? I think it is important that we also try to take a longer term view obviously the vast majority of work effort energy and attention goes into the here and now but I think it's really important and indeed Sage talked about this about trying to take a longer term view that allows us to plan more effectively. We know if we can take those decisions in advance it gives more time for professionals and families to plan about how they can manage their lives and allows professionals to have different methods of education ready to go and ready planned thought about how they're going to deliver it. So we do need to have those discussions as to what the pandemic or the disease may look like in the autumn then I think you know it is too early to tell but Dr Jones said earlier that we think that there is definitely a seasonality element to COVID-19 therefore we do have to think about what will the autumn and winter look like? Yes I mentioned the JCVI cohorts at the moment being vaccinated to reduce the death rate and once those cohorts have been vaccinated then the wider rollout across the population can start in order to try to control the pandemic and stop transmission but we can't until that happens there will still need to be some restrictions in place you can't just let it run riot through younger people for lots of reasons some of them end up in hospital some will get long COVID we want to reduce the harms of this and then again there is then we're entering the winter and the seasonal effect so it is unpredictable but we I don't think we'll be completely free of problems next winter either. We'll now move to Daniel Bevan at LBC. Hi Daniel. Thank you minister and Dr Jones good afternoon to you both this is a question for yourself minister there's been renew calls this morning to get teachers vaccinated now of course you've said today that you're following JCVI advice but you don't have to follow that advice that is something that you've chosen to do so will you follow it regardless of what they say at the next cohort or if they say that teachers aren't part of the next priority groups will you push for teachers to get them first jobs? Well Daniel when you're a part of a government that is set up an independent group of experts to provide you on advice on how to roll out a vaccination programme it would be very strange for that said government then to ignore that advice. Next question. And you've announced further funding for protection on face masks or excuse me protection and face masks that you would be at all considered using or making face covering mandatory in classrooms particularly for older pupils that have another part of the UK and this is for yourself Dr Jones as well. Do you think that that would help lower the levels of transmission in schools? Well Daniel you're absolutely right the effective and proper use of face coverings especially good quality of face coverings does have an important role to pay and obviously today we're talking about foundation phase children's and masks are not recommended not recommended for foundation phase children but clearly when talking about bringing older children back to school then we will indeed have to review whether it would be in the best interests of mandating them to wear face masks within the classroom setting they are already we already recommend that older children should wear face masks on school transport or when moving around the school where social distancing isn't possible but that will be part of our consideration when we begin to think about or we are thinking about bringing older children back to school but the effective use of face masks in the right circumstances done well of the right quality does have a role to play Dr Jones. Yes I mean our position is we recommend their use as the minister said I think to mandate their use and there's quite an issue about mandating anything on the public but I think to mandate their use we would need to have clear evidence that they were effective in protecting either pupils or teachers or reducing transmission in schools and that evidence doesn't exist at present but as I said before young children have very good outcomes from Covid and are generally the safest in our pandemic at present and teachers also have very similar outcomes to the general population. Thank you Daniel we'll now move to Andrew Foregrave at the Daily Post. Good afternoon Andrew. Good afternoon to you minister Good afternoon Dr Jones perhaps this is a question to you both but minister earlier you referred to the need for parents to ensure responsibility to comply with the regulations once schools reopen. Does this imply that parents and families are at the greatest risk to school infection levels and indeed to schools staying open? What I can say Andrew is that we know that when community levels of transmission rise that makes keeping children in school more challenging and more challenging because of additional cases but also more challenging in terms of people being asked to self-isolate because there are contact that causes real problems in ensuring that we have the right number of staff in schools that ensures that you know children aren't being asked to stay at home because there are contact so we know that there is a correlation between community rates and then the impact that that has on schools. Now I know that parents are doing the very very best they can my goodness me it is frustrating and challenging to be a parent at the moment. The message I'm trying to give to parents today is not because I believe that they have been reckless previously but we don't want the signal that their children can go back to school and say well that's okay I can go back to normal life with my child unfortunately we're not in that position so it's not because we think parents have been reckless in the past but we don't want parents to misunderstand this decision to allow foundation-faced children to go back to school to think well that's okay then we can go back to playing in the park together we can have sleepovers we can have play dates we can have birthday parties we really need parents help to help us keep the community transmission rates down because that means their children can be can be in school and we don't want people to listen to a bread or think that this sign means things can go back to a more like normal unfortunately we're going to have to keep on sticking to the rules that little bit longer but as Dr Jones says there is hope and there is optimism that things can improve so stick with it that bit longer back to you Andrew. Shall I come in as well just I mean I think we've learned a lot throughout the pandemic about what happens around schools and through contact tracing and the TTP program and while there's transmission within schools there's no doubt that does happen most of the evidence seems to be that it's about the social contacts that schools create outside the school so it's all the associated activities so it is partly the dropping off of children and picking up of children outside the school gate it's partly the after-school activities it's sports activities these are all activities around the school that bring families together in a way that helps the virus spread so we want to get children back to school but we don't want all of those other contacts to happen so there is a messaging issue here this is about children getting back into school safely but it's not about everybody else mixing more because they are still restricted to the same extent. Thank you to you both can I just touch on tourism many tourism businesses say they will not survive if they are unable to reopen by Easter can you offer them any hope at all? I recognize that this has been a torrid time for businesses right the way across Wales and particularly for our tourism sector and I understand why they're so keen to open up and I know that there will be many people here in Wales and indeed other places that will want to take advantage of the fantastic hospitality that our tourism sector has to offer but clearly we will need to keep all the science and evidence under review it is simply far too soon for me to be able to make a prediction now that that is possible but in the meantime you'll be aware that my colleague Ken Skates the minister for the economy has made available another round of financial support especially for the tourism and hospitality sectors that have taken a massive knock and I would urge those businesses to be in touch with their local authority if they've been in receipt of grants previously my understanding that those grants will be paid automatically but they should check in with their local authority to ensure that they're getting the support that they need and that they are entitled to. We'll now go to Andrew Nettle at the leader. Thank you minister this question is directed by himself and that has been some sort of worrying if the best word is probably caution about easing the lockdown as one rather than so there's been more worrying concern about easing the lockdown as one than there is about locking down and as a general rule concerns here specifically in north Wales either the figures whilst they're lowering are still some of the highest that are in Wales at the moment. Do you think that a national approach to schools will work and if a need arises will local authorities be taking sort of local action and has this been discussed as a possibility by government? Well thank you for that Andrew and I recognise that race and flincia and rexham are indeed higher but as the minister I have to make a national or Wales decision and that is that our expectation is that all foundation phase learners will return from the 22nd but we also understand that schools may want to have some flexibility in organising their timetable for learners you know and they'll be consulting with parents about the best way to do that and that's why we have built in some flexibility for local head teachers and local authorities to reflect on how best to do it for them. The rates in north Wales were for a period of time high we think because the new variants became the dominant variant there first in Wales but the pleasing thing since the restrictions have been in place over the last seven weeks is that even with the new variant being dominant the rates have come down considerably and the difference between the the worst and the best now is much much less than it was and converging all the time so we still hope the rates will come down and it seems quite possible and we hope it will be the case that they will still converge and so not the difference will not be so great as time goes on. Thank you Dr Jones and back to you Andrew. Second question is sort of down to Dr Jones. Doctor Aberton the Chief Medical Officer has previously said that Wales or the whole of the UK have been watching other countries to sort of learn and reflect what is best practice and what works and what doesn't come to bringing levels of the virus down and even despite working hard in the lockdown we still don't think we can see hundreds of cases a day and sadly deaths continue to be upwards of 30 plus a day across the country and my restrictions will still stay in place and they will be in place for quite a while if things are led to be believed by government. One more can be drawn to taking up these numbers and so where we can see a possible sort of like that going away in the summer when we had numbers very low and some data were happily important that no one had actually died from the virus. The technical advisory group that gives advice in Wales which the minister mentioned at the beginning does look very carefully at international evidence and international examples. It has an international subgroup and every meeting has an international update on the state of the pandemic across the world and what different countries are doing. We do learn a lot from that. It is true that in Wales we've been hard hit by Covid and there probably are reasons for that in terms of the health of the population and some of the inequalities maybe that we have in at the UK but at the moment as I say the situation appears favorable one. We do have to persist with restrictions we know for the time being because with the new variant we think that to relax too quickly will cause it to take off quite quickly as well but it is in a much more favorable place than it was and I hope that will now continue. Thank you for that Andrew and that brings us to the end of the press conference this afternoon. Can I thank Dr Jones for his time and joining me today and can I thank the people of Wales we're only able to make this decision today about the return of foundation phase peoples to scores because of all your hard work and sacrifice and for that I'm very grateful.