AROUND 7,000 extra hospital beds will be available in the next "10 to 12 days" thanks to new field hospitals across Wales, NHS Wales chief executive Andrew Goodall has confirmed.
Mr Goodall revealed the news during the Welsh Government daily briefing on coronavirus.
He also revealed the Principality Stadium in Cardiff will begin taking patients as early as Sunday, with other field hospitals in Cwmbran, Swansea, Llanelli, Neath and Llandudno quickly following suit.
He praised the work of NHS staff, government officials and volunteers for helping to roll out the number of beds so quickly, and said the levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff, now standing at around 11 million items across Wales, is "at a scale beyond anything I've seen before".
Mr Goodall began the briefing by reiterating calls laid out by the Welsh Government in a letter addressed to the public earlier in the day, calling on everyone to continue to follow lockdown guidelines over the Easter bank holiday weekend.
"The pressure on our health system will soon be more significant and more visible," he said. "Whatever we do now, the thing that will help the most is if people continue to follow the guidelines. Stay home, save lives."
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He also revealed: "There are 816 people with confirmed coronavirus in hospitals across Wales today and a further 344 suspected cases.
"There are many more people at home with coronavirus who do not need to be in a hospital bed.
"We have increased our critical care capacity further to 369 beds, and this process will continue over the next week."
He said that around 50 per cent of critical care beds are available across Wales, while 47 per cent of acute beds are also available, meaning Wales is "fully prepared" to cope with a peak in cases.
Mr Goodall also led calls for people to stop lying to emergency services about coronavirus symptoms, whether it is to be tested or for other reasons. He said: "One in four 999 calls to the ambulance service are about coronavirus.
"It's important to inform ambulance staff if you have symptoms of coronavirus, so we can ensure we are not putting our paramedics in danger."
Asked about his confidence as to whether Wales' drive-through test centres could meet the demands set out by the UK Government (100,000 per day), Mr Goodall said: "We have clear expertise in place from Public Health Wales.
"We are confident we will reach the levels referred to in recent days."
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