A Welsh Ambulance Service worker has revealed how she played a part in helping to record a number one hit single in honour of fundraising hero Capt Tom Moore.

Jessica Griffiths, an IT officer based in St Asaph, was among the performers on the UK chart-topping version of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

It was released by Michael Ball and the NHS Voices of Care Choir to honour the 99-year-old war veteran from Bedfordshire.

He set out to raise £1,000 for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday - he has now raised more than £29m.

Jessica, 28, from Prestatyn, was tagged in an urgent Facebook appeal for NHS workers to take part in a mysterious project, so she volunteered to sing a backing track.

“I sat in my car at home with my phone and laptop and recorded myself singing so as not to disturb the neighbours," she said.

The next morning the song was debuted on Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball and the reason behind the collaboration revealed - along with its celebrity creator.

“It was a really emotional moment,” said Jessica.

“I had no idea it was for the amazing Captain Tom and to hopefully get him to number one for his 100th birthday.”

She said was "very proud” of the song and the subsequent video in which she was featured.

There has been criticism of Vaughan Gething's announcement that Wales will not follow England in providing tests to all care home residents and workers.

The Welsh NHS is providing testing to residents and staff who have symptoms, but not those who do not.

The policy was expanded in England on Tuesday.

Janet Finch-Saunders, the shadow social minister, said: “This is absolutely staggering. We don’t know the prevalence of infection in care homes and the proportion of residents affected, nor the issue of staff working in close quarters to people who are potentially highly infectious."

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds said: "If we want to keep people safe and contain the spread of this virus then we need to ensure everyone who is potentially exposed is tested and can be treated. Failure to test will only cause further concern and distress to the family and loved ones of those living or working in our care homes.

"I urge the health minister to think again as getting this wrong will cost lives."

Image source, Getty Images

The staff and residents of care homes in England can now be tested for coronavirus, even if they don't have any symptoms, while anyone over 65 with symptoms can also be tested.

But in Wales, the approach is different for the moment.

The Welsh Government is committed to testing key workers with symptoms, including care home staff and also care home residents, but not to test anyone else over 65 if they have symptoms.

So why not mirror the way England is operating?

Well, the Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he has clear advice from medical and scientific advisers that this is a best use of testing resources and to not simply test "everyone and anyone".

The inference is that you will have to keep on testing people, perhaps multiple times, and at the moment Wales does not have the capacity.

The temporary hospital set up at the Principality Stadium, known as Ysbyty Calon y Ddraig (Dragon's Heart Hospital), has received its first patient.

The Cardiff and Vale University Health Board shared the moment on Twitter., external

The Principality Stadium, home of Wales' national rugby union team, has been transformed to provide 2,000 hospital beds during the coronavirus pandemic.

A trainee vicar is posting a poem a day on social media to try and lift the spirits of people during the lockdown.

Ben Lines, who tweets using @benjamin_lines, composes and films minute-long poems to encourage people to keep going.

Mr Lines, who was due to be ordained in June and is on student placement at Llandudno Junction and Deganwy, said: “Lockdown has left the whole of the UK searching for a new normal.

“Most of us have lost our routines and rhythms that we depend upon. Instead we are confined to our homes, attempting to work and function remotely....

“It keeps me going, gives me purpose and space to reflect, and I hope encourages and blesses others in the process.

“It has been wonderful to receive positive feedback from those who do not attend church and wouldn’t identify as ‘religious’, whilst also receiving encouragement from the congregation I serve and people within the wider church.”

Image source, The Church in Wales

Money should be spent on placing public health advertising to support local newspapers, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have said.

The party's Welsh leader Jane Dodds said local papers were "some of the most-trusted sources of news in our communities".

In a tweet, she said: "I am calling on the Welsh Government to spend more on providing public health information in them.

"This will support them financially and help spread these vital updates."

Image source, Tiny Rebel

Tiny Rebel is a prominent Welsh brewery, with pubs in Newport and Cardiff and it sells its beers in more than 50 countries across the world.

Now the company, founded in Newport in 2012, is turning its attention from brewing beer to making hand sanitiser to help in the fight against coronavirus.

"South Wales has been one of the worst hit by Covid-19, so while we continue to make all your favourite beers we set the brewery squad a separate challenge: make hand sanitiser for those who aren’t able to get it," Tiny Rebel said on Facebook., external

"As always they rose to the challenge, aided by the good people over at @Rutpen_Group, and we’ve produced 3000 beer bottles full of NHS standard hand sanitiser.

"We’ve already started donating this out to local charities, care homes, fire service and the list of good causes keeps growing."

Image source, Getty Images

Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething has told BBC Wales he "never considered resigning" after being caught on microphone, external swearing about a fellow Labour AM.

Mr Gething was heard swearing about Cardiff Central AM Jenny Rathbone, who had been asking him about government performance on coronavirus testing and protective kit during a virtual Senedd meeting last week.

Speaking on Radio Wales Breakfast with Claire Summers on Wednesday, he said: "I have never considered resigning because I understand the enormity of the challenge we're facing, and the undeniable importance and impact of the choices that we're making each and every day."

Mr Gething said that as a "decision maker" he was "under very real pressure" but he had "not heard a credible idea about how we do things radically differently".

Mr Gething said he was "here to do the right thing for the people of Wales".

"And that's what I'll continue to do in my role as a health minister," he added.

As we told you earlier, Wales will not follow England in providing tests to all care home residents and workers, the Welsh health minister has said.

The Welsh NHS is providing testing to residents and staff who have symptoms, but not those who do not.

The policy was expanded in England on Tuesday.

But Mr Gething told BBC Radio Wales he had been given advice that testing everyone in the sector was not the best use of resources.

Full story here

Image source, Getty Images

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds announce birth of son at London hospital.

Next has warned that sales will suffer this year with shoppers kept away amid coronavirus.

The fashion retailer said on Wednesday that full-price sales in-store and online could drop by up to 40%.

The company said that it was hard to think of a time when sales and profit had "been more difficult to predict".

In the three days before non-essential shops closed under government instruction on 23 March, external, in-store sales plummeted by 86%.

The firm said: "In reality, the majority of our customers had decided to stop shopping in retail stores before the order came to close them."

Image source, PA Media

An advisory group from outside Wales is to help the Welsh Government lead the country out of the coronavirus crisis.

Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, who led the UK between 2007 and 2010, has agreed to be part of the group.

Other members include Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Dr Rebecca Heaton, of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

The group will advise ministers on how services such as schools, transport and the NHS could operate once the lockdown restrictions have eased.

Last week First Minister Mark Drakeford tasked the Counsel General Jeremy Miles with leading the co-ordination of the Welsh Government's work on recovery from coronavirus and planning for the future.

Mr Miles is expected to give more details about the panel in a press conference today.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Radio Wales

Wales will not follow England by testing all care home residents and workers regardless of if they have coronavirus symptoms.

The UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock made the announcement for England at the Downing Street press briefing yesterday.

But when Wales’ Health Minister Vaughan Gething was asked if Wales would follow suit he said: "No. We have already announced our policy position which is that we are testing everyone who is symptomatic - care home staff and residents.”

He told Claire Summers on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: “I have very clear advice from the CMO [chief medical officer] that the best use of our testing resources is not to test anyone and everyone in the care home sector.

“You need to think through what is going to happen if you do that. If you test people today you get a result. If you test them later on in the same day you may have a different result. What's the point and the purpose of doing that?

“What we are doing is, we are still targeting our resources where they will make the biggest difference - where the scientific advice says they'll make the biggest difference."

An MP has marked National Postal Workers Day by thanking workers for keeping people connected during the pandemic.

The MP for Delyn Rob Roberts posted a video on Twitter to mark the annual event, which is organised by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Children's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland has joined calls for parents to keep their children's immunisation appointments.

Public Health Wales says it has seen a small drop in routine vaccination numbers since the coronavirus pandemic.

"All children have a right to the best possible health," she tweeted.

BBC Radio Wales

Care homes are “facing one hell of a battle” with coronavirus, a care home owner has said.

The number of deaths in care homes continues to rise - there have now been 184 so far in Wales.

In Cardiff they account for more than 40% of all Covid-19 deaths from the virus.

Glyn Williams, who owns Gwyddfor Residential Homes in Bodedern on Anglesey, told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast with Claire Summers: “As part of our Covid-19 risk assessment months ago, I did a bit of research and I started reading about research that was being done in Wuhan and how contagious this was.

“The one thing that stopped me in my tracks was that I read an example of how a pre-op patient managed to infect 14 health care professionals before the onset of a fever.

“I knew then that we are facing one hell of a battle here.

“We've got people in a very close-knit environment and if it gets into the home it's going to go around like wildfire. It doesn't matter how good your infection control is.”

Children's rainbow paintings are being displayed at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service's control room.

The service said the pictures "brighten our day".

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Wednesday morning.

We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.

A student nurse who has been reunited with her children after spending weeks in a coma with coronavirus has been receiving well wishes.

Natasha Jenkins, 35, spent 22 days on a ventilator after falling sick just before Mother's Day.

On Saturday, she finally got to hug her children in an emotional reunion at their home in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

Critical Care Consultant at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales Chris Hingston tweeted: "Wonderful to see, so soon after leaving us.

"It's what we go to work for."

Child vaccinations must continue as normal to avoid other deadly diseases, a leading GP has warned.

Public Health Wales says it has seen a small drop in routine vaccination numbers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Immunisation jabs are seen as crucial to help prevent outbreaks of diseases such as measles and meningitis.

Dr Phil White, of the General Practitioners Committee Wales, said: "People are afraid of coronavirus but I wish they would be equally afraid of other illnesses which are equally deadly."