First Minister says schools in Wales won't reopen until June at the earliest
The First Minister has said that schools in Wales are unlikely to begin to reopen until the beginning of June at the earliest.
Mark Drakeford told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme that the Welsh Government has its own plan, although he'd prefer the decision to be taken jointly with other UK governments.
On Monday, the First Minister issued further clarity on his point, telling the daily press briefing: "It takes three weeks from the moment you make a decision to reopen for schools to be reopened. So if we were to decide, the earliest they could be reopened in June. I didn’t say they would reopen in June. Whenever we decide, it will take three weeks."
He said teaching unions and local education authorities have told the Welsh Government that they'll need three weeks to prepare from the decision to reopen.
The point about moving out of lockdown on a UK-wide basis was echoed by the Shadow Home Secretary who has warned the UK Government to approach any changes in agreement with the devolved governments.
Torfaen MP Nick Thomas Symonds told Sky News that ministers in London should 'not pull some sort of rabbit out a hat' but instead work with devolved administrations in working out next steps. He was answering questions about when schools across the UK should reopen.
The Welsh Government has again been defending its policy on testing after it changed its mind and increased the number of tests being carried out in care homes.
It announced on Saturday that all staff and residents in care homes where there's been a case of Covid-19 will now be tested, something ministers had previously resisted.
It's still a different approach to England, however, where all staff and residents in all care homes are being tested whether or not there's been an outbreak or if they have any symptoms.
Opponents have welcomed the Welsh Government's U-turn but say it doesn't go far enough.
The Conservative spokesperson on social care said:
Meanwhile the Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price has written to the First Minister to 'register my grave concern at your Government's poor handling of COVID-19 testing to date.'
He raises decisions to drop testing targets and to 'spare the blushes of the Westminster government' over a collapsed deal with the pharmaceutical company Roche to supply 5,000 tests as well as a continued refusal to test all care home staff and residents regardless of symptoms.
He asks for internal testing targets to be made public as well as the number of contact tracers that would be needed in Wales.