NON-essential services in Welsh hospitals could be paused if coronavirus continues to spread, the chief medical officer for Wales has warned.

Dr Frank Atherton said that halting non-essential services could be a way to alleviate growing pressure on the Welsh NHS.

While "we have not reached that point" yet, it may be "something that we need to seriously think about", he said.

Speaking at the Welsh Government's coronavirus briefing, Dr Atherton spoke about the current pressure on services.

He said: "Staff are under enormous stress, I obviously understand that.

"The numbers in intensive care units are high, the trajectory is on the upward.

"We do have plans for expanding of more beds, but then you have the issue of workforce.

"You have to have trained staff to run those critical care beds.

"The situation really is quite fraught."

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Dr Atherton said that there were currently 77 coronavirus patients in critical care beds across Wales, but added that the majority were in critical care for other reasons.

Discussing how pressure on the NHS could be reduced, Dr Atherton spoke of Wales' approach of "trying to keep our non-essential services moving."

He added: "It may be that we will come to the point that we need to change that policy of being able to provide non-essential services in Wales.

"That is what we did in the initial lockdown.

"We have not reached the point. We hope not to. We want to keep them running if we possibly can, but that may be something that we need to seriously think about.

"We have to reduce community transmission.

"In the short term that will only happen if we do not mix and we keep our household mixing down."