Wales' health minister says she is "determined to relieve people of their pain as soon as possible" in the wake of worsening NHS waiting times. Eluned Morgan admitted it was "not surprising" to see a deterioration in performance across January and February as they tend to be months where the health service struggles.
However, she said typical winter pressures were compounded by a huge rise in the Omicron variant of coronavirus and her call to health boards to divert resources to the booster vaccination programme. Despite a fall in the Covid infection rate throughout February the BA.2 subtype has seen cases surge once again to more than 400 cases per 100,000 population.
Speaking on Thursday morning, Ms Morgan said it was an "incredible achievement" to keep the increase in waiting times to a minimum at a time of "massive, massive pressure". "I'm really grateful for the heroic efforts that have been undertaken by our health staff in what is a really pressurised time," she said.
