MINISTERS CONSIDER SECOND NATIONAL LOCKDOWN
WALES could be placed under a new national lockdown in order to halt a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, the country’s health minister has warned.
Vaughan Gething said local measures in place across parts of the country may not be enough to suppress the increasing rate of virus transmissions into the winter months.
It came after he warned that the next days are “crucial” for the decisionmaking around further restrictions, and that the Welsh Government might have to “make different decisions to what we are doing” as coronavirus rates continue to rise.
Yesterday, Mr Gething said the next two weeks could see infection rates in Wales reach levels not seen since the peak of the virus during the spring, which led to huge strains being placed on health services.
A decision will be made in the coming days, he said, on whether the current local lockdowns are to be maintained or new all-Wales measures could be imposed.
Mr Gething told the Welsh Government’s Covid-19 press briefing: “The measures that we have put in place at local and national level to date have helped us to keep the spread of the virus in check.
“However, there is growing concern that these will not be enough to help see us through the winter because the virus is spreading so quickly.”
He added: “I do not want to scare people, but I do want people to understand that we potentially face a very difficult few months ahead of us.”
Asked what potential new restrictions were being discussed, Mr Gething said: “We are considering all measures, whether we maintain local restrictions or whether we move to a national picture.”
He and First Minister Mark Drakeford attended a Cobra meeting chaired by Boris Johnson yesterday morning in which the Prime Minister discussed England’s proposed three-tier strategy in which areas will be labelled as medium, high or very high risk and inform appropriate measures.
Mr Gething said the Welsh Government would “consider” the system and would be “watching with interest” with regard to its results.
Mr Gething said Wales would also consider adopting the so-called “circuit break” restrictions being used in Scotland, where pubs and restaurants in the central belt have been ordered to close for two weeks.
Latest figures show the rate of incidents of Covid-19 in the past seven days in Wales was now more than 100 cases per 100,000 people.
And an Office for National Statistics infection survey suggests that one person in every 500 has the virus in Wales.
Mr Gething said the R number for Wales was now estimated to be at 1.37, while the number of people with the virus in Welsh hospitals was more than 330, up from 100 last week, and rising.
He earlier told BBC Radio Wales’ breakfast show: “We are having a think about local restrictions that we have across most parts of Wales, and the picture of a rising tide generally.
“Some areas have developed a bit of control over coronavirus.
“We are having an active debate about what the response needs to be and to take into account the announcement of the Chancellor of some form of business support from November 1.”
He added: “The next few days will be very serious, and we may well have to make a different decision about the sort of approach we are taking, and that includes the conversation about local measures and whether we move to national measures.
“We are having a think all the time about balance, looking at figures coming in, how much control we are able to get locally with the current restrictions.
“They have worked to a degree in suppressing coronavirus, but it takes a lot of effort and commitment from the community, and we need to think about whether that is still the right approach, or whether we do need to take a national approach.
“All of these are not straightforward choices. We know that the virus is being spread, most often indoors, so we have to think about where the virus is mostly spreading, look at how quickly it continues to spread across the country and then what we can do to intervene.”
Mr Gething said he hoped people listened to the First Minister’s warning, made just 24 hours earlier, that we are reaching a tipping point. He added: “The only thing we are certain of is that while people may be tired of restrictions, the virus is not tired and does not care what people feel and is only interested in reproducing”.
Mr Gething said any choice they make as a government needed to be supported by the public who needed
to “act postively”, adding that a rise in Caerphilly could be linked to two clusters of people who had not been following the rules.
On Sunday, Caerphilly had a rate of 87.3 per 100,000 population, which was up from around 50 at times last week.
“A couple of clusters show that it can still flare up very quickly in a localised area,” he said.
“We have incredibly difficult choices to make about protecting the health service and the restrictions we may have to place on people’s lives and businesses and whether our local approach should be replaced by a national approach. The next few days will be crucial.
“There are difficult choices for us all to take.”
England’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said tough new coronavirus restrictions being announced in England yesterday may be needed until after Christmas.
Asked about the festive season, Mr Gething said: “I would like to see family over Christmas, but that involves making difficult choices in any event.
“We want to do everything possible to keep people well, but we will have to see what the picture is at Christmas.
“I can’t tell you what the picture will be in terms of the virus at the end of November, let alone the end of December, but I do know we face a very difficult few days and a difficult few weeks.
“We are tracking a few weeks behind France, and we have seen the extraordinary measures they have had to take with record spikes in the virus.
“I really hope people understand the seriousness of the situation we are in.”