WALES TO SHUT BORDER TO HIGH COVID-19 AREAS
Drakeford ready to place restrictions on travellers from England:
PEOPLE from parts of England with the highest rates of coronavirus will have travel restrictions placed on them if they visit Wales, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
Mr Drakeford made the announcement yesterday in a Plenary session in the Senedd after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ignored his repeated requests to impose rules stopping people from English lockdown areas travelling to Wales.
The Prime Minister has ignored two letters from the First Minister and has shown no intention of introducing anything other than guidance on the issue.
Mr Drakeford said that if the PM does not reply by Friday the Welsh Government has indicated it will bring in legislation on that day to restrict travel from the areas of England with the highest rates of Covid.
Mr Drakeford was responding to a topical question from Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price. He made clear it did not apply to all of England – but just to hotspot areas like Liverpool (which has more than 800 cases per 100,000 people).
He said: “Evidence from public health professionals suggests coronavirus is moving from east to west across the UK and across Wales. As a general rule, it is concentrating in urban areas and then spreading to more sparsely populated areas as a result of people travelling.
“Much of Wales is now subject to local restriction measures because levels of the virus have risen and people living in those areas are not able to travel beyond their county boundary without a reasonable excuse. This is designed to prevent the spread of infection within Wales and to other areas of the UK.
“We are preparing to take this action to prevent people who live in areas where there are higher Covid infection rates across the UK from travelling to Wales and bringing the virus with them.
“I am determined to keep Wales safe.”
It is understood that from Friday at 6pm, people from areas of England with high prevalence rates of the virus will be restricted from travelling to Wales. Under new regulations being prepared by Welsh Ministers, people living in areas with a highprevalence of coronavirus in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland would not be able to travel to Wales for the time being.
The Welsh Government has also published the evidence this decision was based on.
It is understood that if the new rules are brought in they will apply to anyone in an area of England in the top two tiers of alert in the English system – those deemed to have “high” and “very high” risk levels.
Areas of England are currently ordered into “medium”, “high” and “very high” in terms of the local restrictions they are under.
Areas listed as medium will be subject to the same rules as those which currently apply across the country, such as the rule of six and the 10pm hospitality curfew.
The very high alert level will apply to areas causing the most concern, and social mixing will be prohibited indoors and in private gardens.
Pubs and bars will be closed in the very high alert level areas unless they can operate as a restaurant. People in either the high or very high tier will now have to isolate when they travel to Wales.
The debate over restricting people from Covid-19 hotspot areas has been running for two weeks.
On September 28, Mr Drakeford sent a letter to the PM calling on him to take action to prevent this. He raised the issue in the Senedd, press conferences and directly in meetings with the UK Government.
Health minister Vaughan Gething said that the Welsh Government was “deeply disappointed” and in Plenary the First Minister said that Johnson had been “deeply disrespectful” to the people of Wales.
On Monday, Mr Drakeford said he would be writing to the Prime Minister to give him “one final opportunity to do the right thing”.
Mr Drakeford did not want to bring in measures himself because he said he believed it would be more effective if the message came from the UK Government.
The Welsh Government has already imposed quarantine restrictions on countries from outside the UK with high prevalence rates.