Mr. Liam Woods:

At the peak of the first wave, nearly 5,000 staff were absent at any one time. While it is difficult to anticipate what the impact of a second wave would be, we hope that with early intervention and the improvements that have taken place in testing and contact tracing we will not experience the same level of surge. We have to plan on the basis that it is still a possibility.

As the Deputy is aware, what happened in the first wave resulted in a significant number of closed beds simultaneously. I understand 2,200 beds were closed. There was also a significant change in the pattern of public attendance at hospitals, which gave rise to a backlog in demand for services that we are now trying to deal with. The Deputy will be very alert to that. From our point of view, we have to plan on the basis that we may see a recurrence at the level we have seen before but we also have to work to avoid that.