Accurate record keeping and relevant languages key lessons learnt during Wrexham outbreak says First Minister

The First Minister has said we are ‘probably past the most concerning time’ of the coronavirus outbreak in Wrexham.

The regular 2pm Public Health Wales update this afternoon noted no increases in cases on top of the previously reported 302 linked to the outbreak connected to the Rowan Foods factory in Wrexham that has been declared an outbreak.

Today’s Public Health Wales dashboard stats say there are five new confirmed cases in Wrexham.

Today we asked the First Minister Mark Drakeford for the latest on the situation locally, and what has been learnt as a result of it in terms of the Track Trace Protect (TTP) process.

The First Minister told us, “I have the latest advice about Wrexham outbreak in front of me, it does indeed suggest that we are probably past the most concerning time in the outbreak.”

“There is no longer anxiety about widespread community transmission. That is true in Llangefni in North West Wales as well. The outbreak control team will meet again today and there’ll be a further update from the control team later in the day.”

“We are hopeful that it will confirm that the measures that we were looking to the company to put in place have been put in place, and that it can continue to operate in that new way.

“What we have learned I think most of all from a TTP point of view is that when you are working with a population which is often drawn from countries outside the United Kingdom is the need for accuracy in record keeping is really important. So some of the people who we have struggled the most to contact, are people whose names and addresses have not been properly recorded, where the spelling of people’s names is many and various, where telephone numbers have not been properly transcribed.”

“The importance of accurate record keeping is so that our TTP team can get straight on to the contact tracing. I think we’ve learned that, I think we’ve learned something about being prepared to communicate in languages other than Welsh and English because for some of the workers at Rowan Foods to be able to see information in their own language, their native language, is important.

“We will be better prepared to do that more quickly if we face a similar outbreak in the future.”

You can view the full briefing from lunchtime today below, along with the Q&A session:

Yn fyw gyda'r Prif Weinidog, Mark Drakeford | Live with First Minister, Mark Drakeford https://t.co/c8BoLxmDFz

— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) July 10, 2020