Thank you, First Minister, for the statement and also for the ability for myself and our health spokesperson, Rhun ap Iorwerth, to be briefed by members of the technical advisory cell. Could I just say in general terms, my party believes that introducing precautionary protections in a proportionate way is absolutely the right thing to do given the considerable uncertainty that we're still facing in terms of the potential impact of the omicron variant and the potential for the impact under certain scenarios to be considerable.
Could I ask, in terms of the modelling that you referred to done by Swansea University, some of which we will have seen in the briefing, when can you publish that? I think it's important in terms of the communication of the context in which you're making these decisions that the public can see for themselves the various scenarios that have been the backdrop to your decision making. Could you say a little bit more about that modelling that was done, as you said, on different scenarios in terms of severity, but also, particularly given the uncertainty around the severity of the disease, even under the low-severity scenarios, as you were intimating in your earlier response that there was still a significant rise in hospitalisations because of the very, very high number of cases and, indeed, in the modelling that I saw—a higher peak than we’ve seen previously—in terms of cases and even in hospitalisations?
Now, in terms of the latest information about this question of severity, there’s some positive news that has emerged, I think, in the last couple of hours, out of South Africa, about a potential 80 per cent milder impact of the variant in terms of hospitalisation and, indeed, fewer that actually go to hospital developing severe disease. In terms of the UK Health Security Agency report—which I think the summary of has been leaked—have you actually seen any of that information yet, First Minister? And how do you regard some of the information that is being put in the public domain? It’s important to recognise there are caveats, even within the UKHSA report, pointing out, as you say, that there will still be a high number of cases if the transmission is very high and, indeed, also some people will still become ill and require hospitalisation.
In terms of the situation with NHS staff, have you modelled that impact, potentially? And how important has that been in reaching your decision in terms of this modified level 2 that you’re introducing? And if you had a positive response from the Treasury, in terms of the request for furlough support, would you, First Minister, be opting for a different policy choice and looking at a higher level of protection than you think you’re able to do in balancing the various public health benefits versus the wider social and economic and human costs associated with those protections?
A few specific questions. I heard you reiterating what you said in the press conference, in terms of the regulation 18B—the fine on employees not working from home when they’re able to do so. I’ve yet been able to discover the exact, specific fine being introduced earlier. Perhaps if you’re unable to do so now, perhaps you could tell us when that specific duty was created previously, rather than the general duty to stay at home, unless you had a reasonable excuse. And, in terms of the communication, it would be interesting to hear what the TUC said at the social partnership meeting. They were tweeting only a few hours ago that,
'Fining workers compelled into work by their bosses is bad policy'
and still this morning urging you to rethink. So, have you had a later conversation with the Wales TUC, and has their position, in relation to that, changed?
Could you say something in terms of smaller gyms, to give them the assurance, even though they are smaller scale, that they are able to avail themselves of flexibility within the regulations—if 2m is not possible, that they’re able to put in place other mitigating impacts?
In terms of the new rules, potentially, in terms of close contacts and using the lateral flow tests, could you just clarify: are we talking about household contacts or close contacts or both in that case?
And, in relation to health workers, because of the greater transmissibility of the omicron variant, can you give us an update on progress towards providing higher grade FFP3 masks to healthcare workers? And as many healthcare workers will have had their third booster earlier, will they be prioritised in terms of any future fourth booster wave?
And where are we in terms of the discussion about global vaccination? We realise, through, obviously, the omicron experience, how important that is. The Senedd has passed an important motion, laid down by Heledd Fychan, my colleague, reminding us that, unless we’re vaccinated everywhere, then we are unprotected everywhere, and that’s certainly been borne home by the events of the last few days.