HOPE FOR END TO ‘STAY LOCAL’ RULE:
THE First Minister has said the stay local travel rule could be lifted within days, allowing people to travel more widely for the first time since December.
Mark Drakeford said he is “optimistic” that, as coronavirus figures continue to fall in Wales, the ban on people staying local to their homes could be lifted.
His comments came as Wales reported no new deaths related to coronavirus for the second day in succession.
Yesterday he told Members of the Senedd, meeting virtually for plenary: “At the moment the stay local arrangements remain necessary in Wales because of the state of the public health emergency.
“I remain optimistic that given the current figures that we continue to see in Wales with the improvements we are seeing that by the end of the next week we may be able to move from stay local to people being able to travel more widely across Wales.”
It has since been clarified the First Minister was referring to the end of the current week.
Schools in Wales will break up on Friday ahead of Easter the following weekend.
Mr Drakeford had suggested the ban would be lifted to allow travel for the school holidays.
At the last review of restrictions he said he hoped to be able to lift the stay local rule from Saturday, March 27, and that self-contained holiday accommodation would be allowed to open in time for the Easter holidays.
The latest suggestions follow this week’s gradual easing of restrictions which saw Monday’s lifting of a ban on supermarkets in Wales selling non-essential items, while garden centres have now also been allowed to open for the first time this year.
From April 12 there will be a full return to schools, colleges and other education settings, while all nonessential shops will reopen and close-contact services will resume.
If infection rates remain stable or continue to fall, ministers will decide on April 22 whether or not to allow gyms and leisure centres, outdoor attractions, outdoor hospitality, weddings and organised indoor and outdoor activities to resume.
The latest daily update from Public Health Wales (PHW) yesterday showed there had been no new deaths reported with Covid in Wales for the second day in a row.
The number of people who have died with coronavirus in Wales within a month of a positive test remains at 5,488.
PHW also recorded 127 new positive cases of Covid-19 in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 208,119.
The infection rate across Wales is now 41.5 cases per 100,000 of population based on the seven days up to March 18, which is slightly down from 41.8 on Monday and below the key Welsh Government benchmark of 50.
The percentage of tests coming back with positive results is now below the key 5% benchmark at 3.4% in the last seven days.
The data show that 1,288,250 people have now received a first dose of the vaccine and a further 353,347 have had both jabs.
Merthyr Tydfil saw the highest number of new cases reported yesterday with 15, followed by Flintshire with 13, Neath Port Talbot with 12, and Rhondda Cynon Taf and Swansea with eight apiece.
Newport had seven new cases, Blaenau Gwent, Anglesey, Conwy and Powys all had six each, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan had five each, Carmarthenshire had four, Torfaen, Caerphilly, Denbighshire and Wrexham each had three, Pembrokeshire had two, and Monmouthshire, Ceredigion and Gwynedd each had one.
Bridgend reported no new coronavirus cases in the latest 24 hours.
Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak response at PHW, yesterday marked the first anniversary of lockdown by saying: “Thank you to everyone who has worked to keep Wales safe over the past year, and we send our condolences to those who have lost loved ones.
“We are continually testing, researching, informing and developing our response to coronavirus for a better, more resilient future.
“Supermarkets can now sell nonessential items and garden centres can open in Wales.
“This slight easing of Covid lockdown rules is encouraging, and while the level of infection across Wales has declined in recent weeks, there are still several areas which have significantly higher rates.
“Public Health Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Isle of Anglesey County Council are working to offer additional coronavirus testing in Holyhead and Holy Island, including lateral flow tests for secondary school students and their linked households, and homedelivered PCR tests for local resi
...we may be able to move from stay local to people being able to travel more widely across Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford
dents.
“This case-finding aims to find undetected infections to control and reduce the transmission in this area.
“In many areas of Wales the numbers of cases are falling.
“It is now so important that we don’t throw away the substantial gains that we have made, and I would like to send a clear message to everyone that coronavirus hasn’t disappeared and there are still a large number of people who have not been vaccinated. In order to protect everyone, including the most vulnerable, we must all stick to the rules.
“Welsh Government restrictions state that you should not go into any other household or mix indoors with other people who you don’t live with.
“If you are contacted by your local TTP [Test, Trace, Protect] team then it is important that you are truthful with them about where you have been and who you have met.
“They are not there to judge, they are there to help prevent ongoing transmission of the virus and to protect the community.
“If you are asked to self-isolate by your local TTP team then please ensure that you do so for the full ten days – this will help break any chains of transmission.
“We encourage everyone, whatever their background, social demographic and ethnicity, to have the vaccine when they are offered it.”
There were also encouraging figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showing the number of registered deaths in Wales and England has fallen below the average for this time of year for the first time in six months.
There were 10,987 deaths from all causes registered in the week ending March 12, down 605 deaths from the previous week.
This is 511 deaths (4.4%) below the five-year average – the average number of deaths registered during this week between 2015 and 2019.
And it is the first time since the week ending September 4 that overall deaths have fallen below the five-year average.
There were 1,501 registered deaths involving coronavirus in the week ending March 12 – a fall of 28.7% from the previous week.
It is the lowest number since the week ending October 30.
Deaths involving Covid-19 among people aged 80 and over have fallen by 91% since the second-wave peak.
A total of 496 Covid-19 deaths in the 80-and-over age group occurred in Wales and England in the week ending March 12, which is down from 5,342 deaths in the week ending January 22.
Deaths for those aged 75-79 dropped 89% in the same period, compared with falls of 88% for those aged 70-74 and 85% for both those aged 65-69 and 60-64.
People aged 80 and over were the second group on the priority list for Covid-19 vaccines, with doses being offered from early December.
Registered Covid-19 deaths of care home residents, who were in the first vaccine priority group, also fell, by more than a third (36%) to 300 in the week to March 12.
A total of 41,758 care home residents in Wales and England have now had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate since the pandemic began.
The ONS figures cover deaths of care home residents in all settings, not just in care homes.
And overall, 149,117 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid19 was mentioned on the death certificate. The highest number of deaths to occur on a single day was 1,465 on January 19.
During the first wave of the virus, the daily death toll peaked at 1,459 deaths on April 8.