Covid pass use may be extended
COVID passes could become mandatory in more places in Wales, the Health Minister has hinted.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan has said it is one of three things that Welsh Government will look at this week ahead of Friday’s announcement of the Welsh Government’s three-weekly review.
On the BBC’S Politics Wales programme yesterday, Baroness Morgan was asked if any changes to the rules would be made.
Wales is currently in the lowest level of restrictions meaning all businesses are open. That is now referred to as “Covid stable” by Welsh Government but the latest Welsh Government plan has a second stage called “Covid urgent”.
If those happened, it would mean a return to the alert level system and restrictions in Wales, but the First Minister will say they would only be used “proportionately” and as a “last resort”. Baroness Morgan said a move to a higher level of restriction was not being discussed at this time, but that other considerations would be looked at:
More people working from home.
How to get more people to wear face coverings indoors.
Covid Pass use being extended. The minister said: “We will be looking to see how we can absolutely make the most out of the measures that we already have in place.
“Is there anything more we can do for example, around working from home, which we know makes a huge difference? Is there more we can do to make sure that people actually do where their face coverings, in public places indoors? And we’ll be seeing if it may be necessary for us to roll out the vaccine passports to other situations. There are a number of issues that we’ll be considering.
“We’re not talking about moving up the levels at this point, but we will always keep that option open as we head into winter but hopefully the vaccinations will help us to avoid the kinds of lockdowns that we’ve had in the past.”
The Covid pass was introduced in Wales from October 11 despite concerns from politicians and businesspeople.
You use to it show you are either fully vaccinated, or have had a negative Covid test in the past 48 hours before you can go to nightclubs, indoor non-seated events for more than 500 people, outdoor non-seated events for more than 4,000 people and any event with more than 10,000 people.
Baroness Morgan was asked whether needing a Covid pass was a “real possibility over the coming days” to which she replied: “It’s something that is another weapon in our arsenal that we need to be thinking about and, and we are looking at any measures we can to bring down the rates that are extremely prevalent in our communities at the moment.”
The Health Minister also said Welsh Government will look at increasing the numbers of people getting their Covid booster jabs as she said people are being “a bit more fussy” about when they take up the offer.
Baroness Morgan said that while vaccination was “on schedule” Welsh Government wanted to “increase the pace”.
She added: “Of course there are numbers that won’t be eligible for the vaccine yet, you have to wait for six months after your second dose. So people like me are over 50 we wouldn’t be eligible for it yet and yet we’re in that first cohort that should be getting that booster vaccination.
“So focusing on the most vulnerable first is exactly what we’re doing but we would urge people to step forward when they’re called to get the booster and really make sure that they come forward and not delay because there has been some evidence that people are being a bit more fussy this time about when they have their booster job.”
JUST OVER a year ago, at 6pm on October 23, 2020, Wales’s firebreak began.
After months of rising positive cases of coronavirus, the First Minister announced that for 17 days, people should stay at home, all but essential businesses should shut and people had to work from home,
The warning at the time was that if the government didn’t do something to stop the rising cases, “even more extreme measures” would be needed, like an open-ended national lockdown.
The relative normality the country had felt back in August was long gone. People took the chance for one last night out. Looking back now, the optimism with which Wales entered the firebreak lockdown, the hope that those limited days of restrictions would be a small price to pay for a “normal” Christmas, seems painfully misguided.
Yet that was the tantalising prospect laid in front of the nation by the Welsh Government as it ordered Wales again, for the first time since March 23, to stay at home; people had to work from home and not mix with anyone they didn’t live with either indoors or outdoors and supermarkets were told to only sell “essential items”.
After weeks of deliberating, and more than a month after the UK’S top scientific advisory body (Sage) published advice calling for a circuit breaker lockdown, the Welsh Government announced their plans for a ‘short, sharp’ lockdown to halt the spread of the virus.
This was hailed as a way to get the spiralling virus rates under control, give hospitals some breathing room and according to Economy Minister Ken Skates give business “a clear run at that vitally important” period in the run up to Christmas. The First Minister repeatedly said that the stricter the rules, the fewer days we would have to spend in lockdown.
By this point more than two-thirds of Wales’s population had been living under local lockdown rules, the firebreak lockdown offered a way out of this too.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said it had been a “difficult decision” for the Welsh Government cabinet but he expressed the hope that 17 days of restrictions would see Wales through to Christmas. There was even talk about relaxing rules as we got closer to Christmas.
However, ministers pointed out that this was in no way guaranteed. Then-health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “This gives us the best chance of doing that, but if I were to tell you what Christmas looks like today then I’d be making it up, I’d be giving people false hope.” What went wrong? Ultimately, the 17-day plan came too late and was too short. Not to mention that fact it was overshadowed by a supermarket controversy which, to an extent, eroded – at least in part – the confidence of a generally supportive Welsh public.
A Sage paper on September 21 – well before Wales went into its firebreak – made it clear the UK was heading into a second wave and “cases are increasing across the country in all age groups”.
It read: “Not acting now to reduce cases will result in a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences in terms of direct Covidrelated deaths and the ability of the health service to meet needs.
“As in the first wave, the burden of a large second wave would fall disproportionately on the frailest in our society, but also those on lower incomes and BAME communities.”
The advice suggested a package of measures including:
A circuit-breaker to return incidence to low levels
Banning all contact within the home with members of other households
Closure of all bars, restaurants, cafes, indoor gyms, and personal services, eg hairdressers
All university and college teaching to be online unless absolutely essential The advice of Sage has guided the response of the UK nations from the beginning of the pandemic. The advice is then considered by Wales technical advisory cell and all this advice was clearly saying lockdown as soon as possible. It was also clear that the package of measures in Wales’s local lockdowns – where pubs and shops remained open – weren’t tough enough.
While the Welsh Government acted
well before the UK Government, ordering a firebreak on October 23, both governments took too long to go into a circuit breaker lockdown.
However, in many respects the Welsh Government’s hands were tied. Chancellor Rishi Sunak declined to extend the furlough scheme for Wales which was due to finish at the end of October which meant no protection for jobs and a risk of economic catastrophe. Only when England entered a circuit breaker weeks later was the furlough scheme extended.
First Minister Mark Drakeford described Wales’s firebreak lockdown as a “short, sharp shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and buy us more time”.
From the daily figures released by Public Health Wales it appeared as though the peak of the second wave was Thursday, October 29, six days after the day the firebreak lockdown was introduced.
On that day, 1,513 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Wales – one of the highest numbers seen throughout the pandemic. The nation’s seven-day infection rate hit 280 cases for every 100,000 people.
On November 9, the date the firebreak ended, Public Health Wales announced that 931 more people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 following a lab test and there had been eight more deaths.
Remember, the criteria to enter local lockdowns was initially around 50 cases per 100,000 people. When the firebreak lockdown ended, Wales was recording a rate of around 230 cases per 100,000 people. Therefore while there had been a drop from the 250 per 100,000 when Wales entered into the firebreak – it was still exceptionally high compared to previous thresholds.
In hindsight, we now know this temporary drop in the rate was not to last.
The firebreak did slow the virus. For two weeks, Wales’s infection rate fell. There was a consequent fall in hospitalisations and deaths. And yet by November 29, a month after the firebreak began, Wales was back above the level of cases it had been when it went into the firebreak.
As part of Wales’s firebreak lockdown restrictions, supermarkets were prohibited from selling non-essential items – resulting in many blocking off items or specific aisles.
It is safe to say, this caused controversy among the Welsh public and confusion about what was considered ‘essential’.
Welsh Government defended the decision saying it would stop people from spending longer than necessary in the supermarket and in turn stifle transmission while also creating a level playing field for smaller shops that had been forced to close.
Though very small in comparison to delays bringing in restrictions it still proved an unwanted distraction, and arguably went some way in diminishing public support.
By the end of November, any progress made in containing the virus by the firebreak lockdown seemed to be melting away.
The firebreak did slow the virus. For two weeks, Wales’s infection rate fell. There was a consequent fall in hospitalisations and deaths. But ultimately, emerging from a lockdown into restrictions which in hindsight were too lenient made a resurgence in the virus inevitable.
Pubs were open, gyms were open, schools were open, all shops were open, yet the case rate per 100,000 was 207 and positivity rates were 14%.
On November 9, the first day the firebreak ended, city centres were heaving as shoppers made up for lost time ahead of Christmas. Wales now had a higher R rate than England and the number of daily coronavirus cases had again risen to the sky-high number we saw as the firebreak took hold.
On the last day of November, a further three people died with coronavirus in Wales and more than 800 new positive cases were been confirmed.
The infection rate across Wales as a whole stood at 212 per 100,000 people based on the seven days up to November 26.
In what now seems incredulous, around this time, there were reports of all four governments working together to create a joint approach as to how people could celebrate Christmas – including household mixing.
When asked last month about the effectiveness of local lockdowns and the firebreak, a Welsh Government spokesman said: “Our priority throughout the pandemic has been to protect people’s health and keep people safe.
“Every decision we have taken has been based on the expert scientific and public health advice we have received.
“We introduced a 17-day ‘firebreak’ – a form of circuit-breaker – between October 23 and November 8, acting on the clear advice of our scientific advisers at the time.
“This was designed to be a short, sharp shock to help turn back the clock on the progression of the pandemic in Wales during the autumn. The aim was to lower the R rate and ease pressure on the health service. Before we went into the firebreak, local restrictions were in place in most local authority areas in Wales, which had produced mixed results.
“Overall, the time-limited firebreak had a greater impact on the virus than the local restrictions. It has been estimated the firebreak reversed the pandemic by around four weeks.”