CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC LATEST:
ALMOST 5,000 people in Wales have now been diagnosed with Covid-19 as the Welsh Government confirmed the nation’s first field hospital at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium had opened.
Yesterday it was announced a further 36 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of deaths to 351.
There are now 4,930 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Wales, Public Health Wales said on Saturday, after 340 more people tested positive in the past 24 hours. There were 912 tests undertaken since the figures were last updated. In total almost 16,000 individuals have been tested with a total of 18,716 tests carried out.
The true number of those with the virus is likely to be much higher, according to Public Health Wales.
The greatest rise in cases over the past day was in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area, with 69 new cases, though this was only just ahead of Aneurin Bevan (68), Cardiff and Vale (67), and Swansea Bay (66).
NHS England said on Saturday a further 823 people have died in hospital in England after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths there to 8,937.
Patients were aged between 11 and 102 years old and 33 of the 823 patients (aged between 29 and 94 years old) had no known underlying health condition. Their families have been informed.
The Scottish Government announced a further 47 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, taking the tally there to 542.
In total, according to the Department of Health, the total number of UK deaths following positive tests is now 9,875, up 917 in the past day.
The Department of Health said 334,974 tests have been carried out in the UK as of 9am on Saturday, including 18,091 tests on Friday. Of the 269,598 people tested a total of 78,991 have tested positive for Covid-19.
People in the UK are being reminded to not ruin any progress made by flouting lockdown guidelines this weekend as Mr Hancock said hospital admissions were starting to flatten.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The good news is we have seen the number of hospital admissions starting – starting, I stress – to flatten out.
“You can see (from the Government’s charts) that instead of going up exponentially, as they would have done if we had not taken the measures, that they are starting to come down and flatten.
“We haven’t seen that enough to have confidence to make changes.
“The answer to your question, about have we reached the peak, is nobody knows.”
Asked about the chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance saying the UK was two weeks away from the peak, Mr Hancock added: “Our judgement is that we are not there yet and that we haven’t seen a flattening enough to be able to say that we have reached the peak.”
Emergency services across Wales are continuing to urge people to remain home this Easter weekend despite the warm weather.
Police forces across the country are carrying out checks on roads to ensure that all journeys being made are essential.
However, police have stopped drivers overnight claiming to be “picking up rice from a friend” who lived more than 90 miles away and “going to Ireland to collect a dog”.
The two cars that were halted by police had travelled almost 300 miles between them.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were carrying out patrols during the early hours of Saturday when they stopped multiple vehicles.
The force’s roads policing unit in Pembrokeshire came across one driver who had travelled around 200 miles from Manchester to St Clears.
The car was stopped on the A477 with the driver claiming he was travelling to Ireland “to collect a dog”.
After being reported and turned around by officers he told him that he knew he was “chancing his luck”.
A tweet shared by the roads policing unit states: “It’s just gone midnight and we’re conducting checks on the A477 at St Clears.
“The first car stopped is from Manchester, over 200 miles away, the driver states he is going to Ireland to collect a dog.
“He is turned around and reported, he states he knew he was ‘chancing his luck’.”
Police also stopped a vehicle that had travelled from Cardiff to Llanteg at around 1am on Saturday.
Those inside the car claimed they were making the 90-mile journey “to collect rice from a friend”.
After opening the boot of the car officers discovered equipment inside linked to cockle picking.
A statement from the roads policing units said: “It’s 1am, a vehicle from Cardiff is stopped at Llanteg.
“The occupants say they’re off to Tenby to collect rice from a friend, however the postcode leads to a beach.
“The driver opened the boot, within were items linked to cockle picking.
“Occupants reported & escorted out of Pembs.”
In North Wales, police said they are investigating reports that holiday home owners are sending their luggage via couriers in case they get stopped on their journeys during lockdown.
North Wales Police said they are investigating reports of the tactic being used ahead of what is expected to be a hot Bank Holiday weekend.
The Welsh Government has begged second homeowners and visitors to stay away from Wales until the lockdown is over, in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 and to relieve pressure on the Welsh NHS.
The force’s rural crime team wrote on Twitter: “Unbelievably we are investigating reports that people are sending their suitcases via courier with their clothes to holiday homes in Wales!
“So if they get stopped en-route they are not found with them. Surely people aren’t that selfish and cunning... are they?”
Under the lockdown only essential journeys are permitted.
A man from Gwynedd claimed a delivery driver told him he was delivering suitcases to holiday homes in Aberdyfi, NorthWalesLive reports.
The man said: “This sums up the arrogance of a portion of second
home owners.
“A delivery driver said he was very busy today delivering suitcases to Aberdyfi.
“He (the driver) couldn’t understand it when he left his depot this morning and then clicked as he delivered the first pair of five suitcase deliveries.
“He says people are travelling to Aberdyfi, second homes where the car is registered for cheaper car insurance.
“But sending their clothes in suitcases and dropped off by couriers in case they get stopped.”
In Snowdonia, a couple staying at an Airbnb property were confronted on the doorstep by an angry local resident.
The owner of the property, who rents the house through Airbnb, told S4C current affair programme Y Byd ar Bedwar that the couple contacted her after losing their home in Oxford.
DAMIAN Lewis and Helen McCrory, pictured above, have been raising money to feed NHS workers who are fighting coronavirus.
Lewis, who stars in HBO’s Billions and upcoming film Dream Horse, and McCrory of Peaky Blinders and new ITV drama Quiz, have raised the money to feed NHS staff in London but will now roll out the scheme, which is called FeedNHS, out to other cities in the UK, including Cardiff.
Lewis said the scheme will now be extended to Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester.
“The public have been incredible,” he said on the BBC’s Coronavirus Newscast.
“I know a lot of people are feeling a bit cash-strapped at the moment, so they’ve been unbelievably generous.
“But it means we can now kick in with a second round of funding – which is essentially what we are trying to do – in order to take it to Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester, because the virus will move through those city centres.”
The couple, who have links with Wales through McCrory’s mother Anne and Lewis’ paternal grandparents, are currently isolating at home with their children.
McCrory said they had many friends in the NHS who were struggling to get food due to the hours they worked and restaurants and cafes shutting down due to the pandemic.
The initiative has already sent out 6,000 meals which are from high street restaurants.
Restaurants who the couple have teamed up with so far include Leon, Dishoom, Wasabi and Tortilla with the aim to “get food to these people who were working such long hours”.
The FeedNHS campaign was created by Lewis and McCrory with comedian Matt Lucas and John Vincent from LEON restaurants.