The Welsh Government’s chief scientific advisor, Dr Rob Orford, has said greater testing would not have made much difference to how the coronavirus pandemic was managed in Wales.

He said the advice to socially distance, and to isolate if you or family members have symptoms, had been very effective in suppressing the spread of the disease.

And he denied that low testing numbers meant the government could not properly track the spread of coronavirus.

“We also use measures like hospital admissions, ICU beds and calls to 111,” he said.

“We have introduced the Zoe tracker app which enables people themselves to upload their symptoms. We have got over 100,000 people in Wales using that app.

“Some of the narrative in the media would suggest that we don’t have surveillance systems in place, when we do.”
I hope people know about this and are downloading it. The more people who use it the quicker we are able to think abut easing lockdown safely.