NO FREEDOM DAY FOR WALES – YET
Wales will not be rushed into scrapping its coronavirus restrictions despite England’s plans to do so later this month, the Welsh health minister has said. Eluned Morgan, above, insisted she would be “following the data rather than the politics”
WALES will not be following England in scrapping all its lockdown measures on July 19, it has been confirmed.
On Monday the UK Government announced that it will lift all restrictions from that date in England in what many have dubbed “Freedom Day”.
In a fortnight’s time all legal limits on social contact are set to be removed in England, and there will be no cap on the number of people who can meet up both inside and outside the home.
In addition, the remaining businesses that are still closed, including nightclubs, are set to reopen.
But Wales’ Health Minister Eluned Morgan said Wales would not move to a “political deadline that has been set out artificially” by the UK Government for England.
“We are still in a very difficult situation because the case numbers are increasing exponentially still in Wales. There remains a vulnerability for those people who haven’t been vaccinated,” she said.
“However, we also have to understand that there are other harms that we need to consider and, in particular, the mental health situation, the economic situation, the social situations that people find themselves in.
“We’ll be considering those in the next few days. We need to understand that we are going to learn to live with this illness, and we are going to have to adapt as a society to a situation where we will be exposed to an extent to this new variant and to coronavirus more generally.”
In Wales, the lifting of restrictions was put on pause for four weeks on June 17 to get as many people as possible vaccinated before the next review takes place on July 15.
Baroness Morgan said in “an ideal world” she would have liked the four nations to work together on a shared approach to the easing of lockdown.
“But if it’s not right for Wales, we won’t be doing it. However, we will be making those decisions as part of our next 21-day review, so you’ll have to wait until next Wednesday for more announcements.
“We will be following the data rather than the politics, and that is what we have continued to do throughout this pandemic.”
Baroness Morgan added that she couldn’t give any assurances that Wales would not be placed into a stricter lockdown again should new variants evade the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“I can’t make those kind of predictions, and I’m surprised the UK Government is able to make those predictions, but certainly in Wales we will not be giving those kind of assurances that there won’t be any lockdowns in future,” she added.
“There will be huge winter pressures this year because of possible flu outbreaks. The chances are there will be very high rates of flu this winter. I’m pleased to say the Welsh NHS is already putting measures in place for that.”
Meanwhile, Wales’ vaccination rollout has “weakened the link” between contracting coronavirus and hospitalisation, the health minister said.
Baroness Morgan said even the threat of the more transmissible Delta variant is not having a significant impact on hospital admission rates.
Across Wales the seven-day Covid infection rate has now risen to 95.6 cases per 100,000 people in Wales, with more people are coming forward for testing every day.
But when compared with the second wave, daily hospital admissions and bed occupancy rates are currently far lower – and that’s been attributed to the vaccine programme which has seen almost nine out of 10 adults have their first vaccine and two-thirds both doses.
“We are increasingly confident this wave will not cause the same level of serious illness and harm as the previous waves we have experienced in Wales,” said Baroness Morgan.
“This is thanks in large part to our fantastic vaccination programme, which has been delivered by the NHS.”
She added: “In the last few days, there’s been a small increase in the number of people admitted to hospital with Covid – there are around 100 people with Covid in hospital at the moment.
“We’re watching these numbers carefully. But we believe vaccination has weakened the link between the virus and hospitalisation, even in the face of the new Delta variant.
“This doesn’t mean that you’re invincible if you’ve had two doses of the vaccine, but it does mean it’s really important that you complete the course – one dose is not enough.”
However, NHS Wales chief executive Dr Andrew Goodall warned that 86% of all hospital beds were full – the vast majority non-Covid related.
“Demand for urgent and emergency care is back to pre-pandemic levels – and at times it is even busier,” he said.
“Delivering this level of care while we still have strict infection control and social distancing measures in place to protect staff and patients from coronavirus is difficult. It means the productivity and efficiency of the NHS is affected.
“In primary care, more and more services are being provided – NHS dentists are bringing more people forward for routine treatment – and in some parts of the system demand and activity is higher than it was before the pandemic.”