First Minister attacks ‘selfish minority putting everyone’s lives at risk’
FIRST Minister Mark Drakeford has attacked the “selfish minority” in Wales who are “putting everyone else at risk” of contracting coronavirus through their behaviour.
Ten days after Wales’ firebreak lockdown came to an end, Mr Drakeford said: “We have always said the real and lasting impact of the firebreak would depend on how we all act once that period was over. Here the news is more mixed.
“Most people go on sticking with it; doing whatever they can to help turn back this deadly virus. But this is not universally the case. I receive letters and emails every day from people all over Wales worried about how others are socialising in large numbers or gathering in homes.
“Our police forces have reported, in the post-firebreak period, they have responded to more than 1,000 Covid-related incidents, where a selfish minority is putting everyone else at risk.”
Among recent examples of people flouting rules include a large group of people getting together for a large bonfire in Merthyr, which at the time had among the very worst rates of coronavirus infections in Britain, and large numbers of students gathering for house parties in areas which also had extremely high infection rates.
Mr Drakeford said there has been a consistent reduction in the rate of coronavirus across Wales over the last 10 days, to around 160 cases per 100,000 people, including a huge drop in Merthyr from 770 to around 250. The highest rate in Wales is now in Blaenau Gwent, at 350.
The latest estimate for the R number rate of inferction is between 0.9 and 1.2.
But Mr Drakeford also said this fall had not meant a reduction of pressure on the NHS, and that there are currently “the equivalent of more than 50 hospital wards full with people seriously ill with coronavirus”.