Coronavirus in Wales: All care homes tested by 12 June

The Welsh Government has faced criticism for not testing everybody in care homes

All care homes in Wales will have been tested for coronavirus by 12 June, according to the first minister.

Mark Drakeford said it was a "major effort" after the Welsh Government extended its coronavirus testing policy to cover all care home residents and staff in Wales.

Ministers had previously faced criticism for not testing everyone.

Initially, they had opted only to test individuals with symptoms.

They then increased testing to larger care homes with no signs of the virus on 6 May.

On 16 May the Welsh Government announced testing would be extended to all care home residents and staff in Wales.

Mr Drakeford made the comments at the Welsh Government daily press conference on Monday.

Speaking at the time of the policy change in mid-May, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said changes resulted from "emerging evidence and scientific advice".

It will have taken a month to test all care homes if it is completed by 12 June

If all care homes are tested by 12 June, then it would have taken roughly a month to do so since the policy change was announced on 16 May.

Mary Wimbury, chief executive of Care Forum Wales, has previously said she wanted to see all care home residents and staff tested "at least weekly".

The "test, trace, protect" system launched last Monday sees the close contacts of people who have tested positive for coronavirus asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

In a paper on 19 May, the Welsh Government's scientific advisors said "speed of testing and tracing" is the most important factor in producing an effective contact-tracing system.

Only 62.3% of tests done in 24 hours

But official statistics show that on 31 May, only 62.3% of the results of coronavirus tests conducted in hospitals were received within 24 hours.

The figure dropped to 57.5% of tests at drive-through centres and 55.5% of tests at coronavirus testing units - the worst set of figures for both settings since weekly test results were first published at the end of April.

On Monday, Mark Drakeford repeated his call to process coronavirus tests more quickly.

"We're doing around 3,000 tests a day and that means that we will be able to do more of those tests, more quickly," he told BBC Politics Wales.

"Our ambition is to have as many of them as possible done within 24 hours so that if people don't test positive we can release people back into the workforce and that's a moving picture," he added.