Wales set to bring in travel ban – minister
PEOPLE could be stopped from visiting Welsh holiday hotspots this half-term after First Minister Mark Drakeford blasted Boris Johnson for not bringing in travel bans as part of his Covid traffic light system.
The Welsh leader attended the crisis Cobra meeting hosted by Downing Street yesterday and then issued a statement saying the Prime Minister has ignored his request to stop people from Covid hotspots visiting parts of Wales with low infection rates.
Now it looks like the Welsh Government could go it alone by bringing back something akin to the original five-mile travel limit or somehow stopping people from places where there are high numbers of Covid cases visiting low infection areas.
On Friday Mr Drakeford said lawyers were already preparing “a set of potential actions” in case Mr Johnson did not “bring in travel restrictions for hotspots as part of his package of measures unveiled yesterday.
He said: “If the UK Government isn’t prepared to do that sensible thing and prevent people from travelling and spreading the virus with them we will have to rely on our own powers, which we do have and will use.”
After yesterday’s meeting the Welsh Government said: “The First Minister expressed deep disappointment at the inadequate proposals for travel restrictions in high infection areas in England, and said these would be met with great dismay in many parts of Wales where infection rates are lower.
“He also requested greater clarity on the metrics for placing areas into each tier, and agreed with other devolved leaders that the Treasury’s proposals for financial support, while welcome, did not go far enough in protecting the lowest paid workers.”
Many areas of south and north Wales are already in lockdown with residents and visitors only allowed to cross county borders for essential reasons such as work.
But English people from all areas of the country are free to visit areas with low rates of coronavirus infections in mid Wales and parts of England such as Devon.
On Friday Mr Drakeford told our sister website GloucestershireLive that he will do his “very best” to take into account that many people in Gloucestershire cross the border on a regular basis and vice versa when he considers bringing in travel restrictions.
He said: “We will do our very best to make sure that any decisions we make we communicate as carefully as we can to those living over the border and to let them know that they are friends, they are our colleagues and we never take decision in the sense of they are a problem that we have to solve.”