First minister reveals ‘real fears’ at start of outbreak

THE First Minister said yesterday there were “very real fears” that supermarkets would run out of food, the NHS would be overwhelmed and there would be a lack of space to bury the dead at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis.

Mark Drakeford told a press conference in Cardiff there had been concerns that vulnerable people would not have access to basic supplies or a “safety net” of services.

But he said those “worst fears” had been averted due to people in Wales following the rules, including the Stay at Home and the Stay Local regulations.

Mr Drakeford was speaking at the final daily Welsh Government press conference. There have been 97 such briefings since March.

He said the first time he spoke of coronavirus in a press conference was on March 2, shortly after Wales’ first case of the virus had been confirmed in someone who had been on holiday in Italy.

“Within weeks we saw the virus rapidly accelerate in Wales and a decision to introduce the UK-wide lockdown,” Mr Drakeford said.

“Now in the middle of July, it’s difficult to remember how in those early days we faced so very many real fears as the virus changed the way we lived our lives.

“We were genuinely worried that supermarkets may have run out of food, that our NHS would have been overwhelmed – that we would have had neither the beds nor the equipment for those who needed them.

“We feared we would run out of places to bury the dead, that our most vulnerable people would have no access to basic supplies, the poorest families in Wales would be without the safety net of services on which they rely and that our economy would be overwhelmed.”

Mr Drakeford said that since then, businesses had been lost, children’s education had been affected, families had been unable to see loved ones and more than 2,400 people in Wales had died.

He stressed that for those who had lost loved ones, the coronavirus crisis “is certainly not over”.

The First Minister thanked people who worked in public services, health and social care, local authorities, volunteers, teachers and support staff as well as “people who collect our bins, who drive our buses and who have kept shops open”.

Mr Drakeford referred to the “darkest days” in April, when the virus was at its peak in Wales.

At that time, there were hundreds of positive Covid-19 cases reported and 149 people admitted to hospital for the virus each day.

There were 164 people with the virus in intensive care in the middle of April, and 10 yesterday. During the peak, 43% of tests each day in Wales were positive for Covid-19 but this has now fallen to less than half of 1%, Mr Drakeford said.

Mr Drakeford also said there were days where he had “real concerns” about running out of personal protective equipment (PPE).

He said the fact this didn’t happen was down to the help of Welsh businesses, colleagues in the NHS and the

Welsh Government, which worked to secure new suppliers.

“We have supplied more than 215 million items of PPE,” he said.

“We have also increased our testing capacity. We can now carry out 15,000 tests in Wales per day. More than 300,000 tests have been carried out in Wales and just over 17,000 have been positive.”

He added that the positivity rate had now fallen to less than 0.5% each day, but warned that until there was a vaccine for Covid-19 it would remain with us for “some time yet to come”.

“While coronavirus is and has been in retreat in Wales, the crisis is not over,” he said.

In the Welsh Government, Mr Drakeford said he would spend the summer planning for the rest of this year, including working on the economic resilience fund to support businesses.

He said they would also be refining plans for schools in the autumn, and working to make sure field hospitals and PPE stocks were ready.

Mr Drakeford also confirmed that playgrounds, funfairs, community centres and outdoor gyms can reopen on Monday.

“We continue to look carefully at the latest medical and scientific evidence and the current state of the virus as we make decisions to unlock our society and economy,” he said.

“With rates of the virus in Wales continuing to fall, we are able to carry on with our gradual, step-by-step lifting of the restrictions.”

The Welsh Government had previously asked a number of businesses to begin preparing to reopen from July 27, if the conditions allowed. These include: close-contact services, including nail and beauty salons and businesses providing tanning services, massages, body-piercings, tattooing, electrolysis or acupuncture; indoor cinemas, museums, galleries and archive services; and tourist accommodation with shared facilities, such as camping sites.

The Welsh Government added that indoor opening for pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants was likely to resume from August 3 following the outcome of the next review of the coronavirus regulations.