Coronavirus update - NO MORE RESTRICTIONS

[Rjk]

The Welsh and Scots do have the SAGE information and both governments have broadly followed the lines taken in England with tweaks around the edges all locking down at broadly the same time, the quarantine arrangements are not dissimilar and this second semi lockdown is not that dissimilar either in all 3 countries. The Welsh and Scots are consulted by the Whitehall civil servants and at government level prior to decisions being made so how come they are not doing things that differently? I disagree that the WElsh and Scots are doing better. Let's face it all are doing badly especially with regard to test and trace as I mentioned earlier. Let's leave it there as we can argue about this all afternoon and I have better things to do.

Testing is (mis)managed by central government though

[Vindec]

Testing is (mis)managed by central government though

I had to come back to correct you. The Roles of the bodies in Wales is set out in a government paper which states:

Roles and Responsibilities
Individuals – following public health advice, hand washing, social distancing, reporting symptoms and self-isolating when necessary.

Welsh Government – provide strategic direction, oversight, determine priorities and provide resources to enable test, trace, protect.

Public Health Wales (PHW) – our expert National Public Health body providing leadership and specialist advice on public health approaches. Responsible for coordinating contact tracing, advising on sampling and testing, laboratory analysis of tests, health surveillance and providing expert health protection advice and analysis of the spread of the virus in our communities through a range of health surveillance indicators.

Local health boards and local authorities – providing a wealth of contact tracing experience and working in collaboration to deliver regionally coordinated local contact tracing teams – a mix of clinical and non-clinical staff who can support those who are symptomatic or have tested positive and their close contacts to stay safe. This will sit alongside their existing role to provide testing facilities and environmental and public health responses to local outbreaks and clusters or preventative action in areas regarded as high risk.

[the other bob wilson]

I had to come back to correct you. The Roles of the bodies in Wales is set out in a government paper which states:

Roles and Responsibilities
Individuals – following public health advice, hand washing, social distancing, reporting symptoms and self-isolating when necessary.

Welsh Government – provide strategic direction, oversight, determine priorities and provide resources to enable test, trace, protect.

Public Health Wales (PHW) – our expert National Public Health body providing leadership and specialist advice on public health approaches. Responsible for coordinating contact tracing, advising on sampling and testing, laboratory analysis of tests, health surveillance and providing expert health protection advice and analysis of the spread of the virus in our communities through a range of health surveillance indicators.

Local health boards and local authorities – providing a wealth of contact tracing experience and working in collaboration to deliver regionally coordinated local contact tracing teams – a mix of clinical and non-clinical staff who can support those who are symptomatic or have tested positive and their close contacts to stay safe. This will sit alongside their existing role to provide testing facilities and environmental and public health responses to local outbreaks and clusters or preventative action in areas regarded as high risk.

So, are you saying the UK Government has no say in testing and tracing in Wales, because there is no mention of them in what you have listed. If so, how does that tie in with the story on the weekend about the testing centre in Porth (I can't remember if it had the capacity to do three or five hundred tests a day) being told by central Government to do just sixty, which was then raised to a hundred and twenty after representations by the Welsh Government?

That is the sort of administration I mean, the sort that was at the heart of the opening story on last night's Newsnight where the point was made that while the Government deserves credit for the big increase in testing numbers compared to the spring, they are, clearly, not getting the best out of the system at present.

[Vindec]

So, are you saying the UK Government has no say in testing and tracing in Wales, because there is no mention of them in what you have listed. If so, how does that tie in with the story on the weekend about the testing centre in Porth (I can't remember if it had the capacity to do three or five hundred tests a day) being told by central Government to do just sixty, which was then raised to a hundred and twenty after representations by the Welsh Government?

That is the sort of administration I mean, the sort that was at the heart of the opening story on last night's Newsnight where the point was made that while the Government deserves credit for the big increase in testing numbers compared to the spring, they are, clearly, not getting the best out of the system at present.

The paper I quoted was written by the Welsh government. Of course central government has a say in the arrangements but an earlier post of mine pointed out that the Welsh and Scots governments were involved which their own paper confirms and you will probably agree all 3 countries follow broadly the English arrangements with regard to lockdowns, testing and quarantines with tweaks around the edges. Also an earlier post of mine stated:

" However, I agree the test and trace arrangements are farcical. I live in Devon; people are being told to go 20 miles for a test but then discover Swansea is 20 miles by sea but a 300 miles round trip by road. It's a joke."

Incidentally I was very surprised to hear on the radio this morning that, even with out shambolic test and trace system, the UK is testing more than Germany per day - a country which is held up as being an example to us all.

Just to put the record straight I am no supporter of the test and trace arrangements and think things are going to get more challenging for the government when students who man many of the testing centres return to University/College. The government contractors SERCO seem to have avoided criticism so far so let's see what happens going forward.

[the other bob wilson]

The paper I quoted was written by the Welsh government. Of course central government has a say in the arrangements but an earlier post of mine pointed out that the Welsh and Scots governments were involved which their own paper confirms and you will probably agree all 3 countries follow broadly the English arrangements with regard to lockdowns, testing and quarantines with tweaks around the edges. Also an earlier post of mine stated:

" However, I agree the test and trace arrangements are farcical. I live in Devon; people are being told to go 20 miles for a test but then discover Swansea is 20 miles by sea but a 300 miles round trip by road. It's a joke."

Incidentally I was very surprised to hear on the radio this morning that, even with out shambolic test and trace system, the UK is testing more than Germany per day - a country which is held up as being an example to us all.

Just to put the record straight I am no supporter of the test and trace arrangements and think things are going to get more challenging for the government when students who man many of the testing centres return to University/College. The government contractors SERCO seem to have avoided criticism so far so let's see what happens going forward.

Fair enough, I'd still say that under the current arrangements, the Welsh and Scottish Governments are never wholly in control of their test and trace regimes (this applies especially to Wales) when something like we saw at Porth can happen - seems to me that the UK Government will always have the equivalent of a casting vote in this country.

Germany is an interesting point of comparison with the UK Government, because I believe you're right about the number of tests they do compared to us. While mainland Europe has seen a big rise (new case numbers are higher than in the spring in some countries), Germany still has lower daily figures than us and their death figures remain very low relatively speaking - they seem to be getting more from their system than us despite our resources and spending being arguably greater than theirs.