First Minister 'sorry' people haven't had coronavirus tests as quickly as they would have liked

The First Minister says he is 'sorry' that people haven't had coronavirus tests as fast as they would have liked.

Mark Drakeford said: "Of course we are sorry for people who have not got tests as fast as they would have liked, of course we wish that the system had been capable of coming on stream faster and for more people."

It comes as the Welsh Government admitted that it will not be able to fulfil its promise of 5,000 tests a day by the end of the third week of April.

Speaking to ITV Wales, Mark Drakeford vowed to test more people and to make the system faster and easier to use. He also said that there will be regular reports of progress although he would not be drawn into putting another target in place saying "we see where that gets us. We spend all our time obsessing about a figure."

The First Minister also warned that as lockdown measures are lifted, there will be further outbreaks of coronavirus. He said: "No matter how careful or cautious we are, there will be outbreaks of coronavirus here and there." He said that it was important then restart testing people in the community again so that it would be possible to "trace, test and then isolate those people so that we are on top of any outbreaks that will flare up."

Mark Drakeford was also asked about how lifting lockdown restrictions would work for Wales. He said that he was prepared to diverge from the wider UK Government plan if he felt it was needed.

"We are prepared to do that, but do we want to do that? No. What we want is a common recovery plan for the United Kingdom because that gives a clear, simple message for everybody wherever they live that we are doing things together," he said.

When asked about how long Wales will be feeling the impact of the pandemic crisis, the First Minister said it will be many, many months and possibly years.

The First Minister said: "We are not out of this crisis, I don't believe, until we have a vaccine that works for everybody and we can get immunity right through the population. While people are working incredibly hard to create that vaccine, that's likely to be months...possibly years."

He added: "I don't see us getting back to how things were before the virus struck, completely back to that until we are in that position where we can genuinely offer vaccination to people."