A CONTACT testing and tracing service will launch in Wales on Monday, the boss of NHS Wales has said.

England and Scotland's contact tracing service went live on Thursday, but Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales, said the trials across four health board regions - including the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board - had allowed them to iron out any teething problems ahead of the Wales-wide launch on June 1.

"Some of the teething issues on this were the ability to make sure we can hold some of the data, track through the information, having the call handling facilities in place and making sure we understand there are differences in how we respond in a city environment compared to in a more rural environment," said Dr Goodall.

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"These have all been lots of small pieces of information that have been very helpful in developing a national approach for Wales."

Dr Goodall said they had no intention of using the information people give to contact tracers to enforce fines if it was found they had broken lockdown and met with people from outside their household.

"In the very early stages of this outbreak, we were undertaking contact tracing in Wales," he said. "We found that people were very open and understanding about those areas.

"There may be a time in the future when the government may wish to review the need for fines.

"Our general approach has been to work with the public, not through that penalty approach."

Dr Goodall said 600 of the targeted 1,000 tracers were already in place.

"It's not about aiming to have all of those recruited in the next one or two weeks," he said, "it's about making sure we are able to recruit in line with the demand that we see and the pressure that is placed on that contact tracing system."

Ahead of the First Minister's announcement on the lockdown on Friday, Dr Goodall urged a cautious approach to relaxing lockdown.

"We do need to maintain a cautious approach, certainly in making sure our NHS and social care system remains resilient and available," he said. "I think this has been a really important two or three weeks that we can see has genuinely contributed to an ongoing reduction in community transmission and also an ongoing reduction in patients in our critical care beds and in hospital beds.

"We would like to make sure this virus is not able to get a hold in Wales again over the forthcoming weeks."

Dr Goodall said around 5,400 people had been discharged from hospital after being admitted with coronavirus.

"There are 354 available critical care beds in Wales, more than 62 per cent of these are empty and available," said Dr Goodall. "44 people are being treated in critical care for coronavirus - the lowest we have seen since March 27.

"The majority of people being treated in critical care now do not have coronavirus, which shows that more NHS work is taking place."

Dr Goodall said there were signs the NHS was returning to normal, with other services like cancer referrals starting to increase, although he admitted it could take "some weeks and months" to get back to normal.