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The First Minister has defended Wales' decision not to increase coronavirus testing in care homes, despite England's move to offer more tests to the elderly.

On Wednesday Mark Drakeford said there would be "no value" in providing tests to everyone in care homes.

Currently, the NHS in Wales is testing only residents and staff who have symptoms.

(Image: Daily Post Wales)

But on Tuesday the UK Government expanded testing to millions more in England, including all care home staff and residents.

Mr Drakeford said a similar policy in Wales would "divert capacity".

Speaking during a virtual meeting of the Welsh Assembly he said: "The reason we don't offer tests to everybody in care homes… is because clinical evidence tells us there is no value in doing so. Because of that, we don't do it.

"Testing people who have no symptoms, today - for that to be a reliable message to them, you'd have to test them again tomorrow."

He added: "We are working with the care home sector to consider a wider testing remit in those care homes where there is clearly an outbreak of coronavirus."

He made the claim in response to a question by South Wales East AM Delyth Jewell about the decision to routinely test residents moving from hospital to care homes announced on Thursday.

Ms Jewell said that she had spoken to a care home manager who believed Covid-19 was brought into the care home from a resident returning from a non-coronavirus related hospital visit. The care home manager had asked for the resident to be tested, but the request was refused.

The Plaid Cymru AM added that the patient went on to develop Covid-19 symptoms and the infection later spread among other residents, leading to numerous deaths in the care home, with two having been confirmed to have died from the virus.

The number of tests available daily has increased from 1,800 at the end of last week to 2,100, Mr Drakeford said.

On Tuesday it was announced that staff and residents of care homes in England can be tested for Covid-19, even if they don't have symptoms. Anyone over 65 can also be tested if they have symptoms.

The Welsh Government has not made the same commitment.

Currently, critical workers, such as health and transport workers, with symptoms can be tested alongside people in hospital with symptoms.

This map shows where the deaths reported by Public Health Wales have been recorded:

Staff at a Welsh nursing home were left devastated after the deaths of 15 residents in the space of just a month.

Tests weren't carried out but 14 of the elderly residents at Tregwilym Lodge in Rogerstone, Newport, reportedly had coronavirus symptoms.

It is normal for one or two residents to die in a month but to lose so many has been described as "catastrophic" by the general manager.

It comes as a further 73 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, health officials said on Wednesday (April 29).

The total death toll now stands at 886. Public Health Wales said the large increase was down to a backlog of reports.

To date, 9,629 people have tested positive for the virus in Wales.

The daily death total reported by Public Health Wales only includes lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in hospitals. The true figure is likely to be around 60% higher when deaths in care homes, hospices and at home are included by the Office for National Statistics. That figure had already passed 1,000 by April 17.