Plan to curb covid-19 spread with ‘simpler’ national restrictions
WALES will adopt a “simpler” set of national coronavirus restrictions following the country’s “firebreak” lockdown, the First Minister has said.
Mark Drakeford admitted the series of local lockdowns he previously imposed across the country during the autumn “didn’t work well enough” to curb the spread of the virus.
The new rules would also be “easier for everybody to understand” after confusion over the Welsh Government’s ban on the sale of non-essential items in supermarkets, he said.
Mr Drakeford said the national measures, which will come into force when the 17-day “firebreak” ends on Monday, November 9, would balance “maximum protection” from Covid-19 with “as much freedom” as possible.
He told the Welsh Government’s Covid-19 briefing in Cardiff yesterday: “We will put in place a simpler set of national rules that are easier for everybody to understand, to help keep us safe and keep the virus under control.
“We’ve been working hard to create this new set of measures that we can all live with this winter.
“If the new measures are to work, we all have to act in ways that live up to the public health emergency we are facing together.
“Please do not treat the new rules as though they were a game in which the challenge is always to stretch them to the limit.”
He added that ministers are finalising the national set of measures and he will provide the “full details” on Monday.
Mr Drakeford’s announcement came after UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said England was “striving” to avoid issuing blanket restrictions nationwide. Speaking on Thursday, Mr Raab insisted that more targeted measures could slow the growth in cases.
Asked why Wales would not return to the local lockdown system, Mr Drakeford said: “It’s not that they didn’t work. It’s that they didn’t work well enough to withstand the onslaught that we have seen from the virus over the last six weeks.
“They undoubtedly have helped, and all the efforts that people have made in those areas have kept the virus at a lower level in Wales than would otherwise have been the case.”
The new national measures for Wales will be announced by the First Minister on Monday.
Mr Drakeford said: “Over this weekend, the Cabinet here in the Welsh Government will be finalising the national
measures and I will report again to you on Monday with the full and final details.”
The First Minister said shops, bars, restaurants and gyms will be able to re-open as part of the new national measures and will be able to trade on the same basis as before.
He said pupils will go back to school, churches and places of worship will resume services and community centres will be available for small groups to meet safely indoors in the winter months.
The First Minister said working from home will become even more necessary.
Mr Drakeford said travel and meeting people indoors are two of the most challenging issues the Welsh Government are considering.
“On travel, the dilemmas that we have to think about are whether it is still sensible when the virus has spread so far in Wales to continue to ask people in Wales to only travel in their local authority. The case for it was strong to begin with because it prevented people from taking the virus with them elsewhere,” he said.
The First Minister said he is aware of the restriction that not being able to travel beyond your local authority put on people’s lives and was in some ways “unfair” because it had a different impact depending on the size of the county borough you live in.
The First Minister said there are more than 220 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people in Wales and that a further 1,700 cases will be confirmed on Friday but that the actual number of infections will be much higher.
But he said the figures are not an indication the fire-break is not working.
“They show the level of infections which occurred a couple of weeks ago – it can take up to two weeks for people to become ill with coronavirus,” he said.
“The patterns of transmission we see reflected in these figures today show how quickly the virus has been moving across Wales over the last few weeks.
“They show just why a fire-break was needed.
“To reduce our risk of getting ill – and becoming seriously ill – we would ideally reduce our contacts with other people to an absolute minimum. But very few of us live in isolation from each other.
“A new national system of measures must fit in with the way we all live our lives.”