‘Stay home’ message remains to fight virus
THE “stay home” message has not changed in Wales and remains the best way to protect people from coronavirus, First Minister Mark Drakeford stressed yesterday.
Mr Drakeford joined the leaders of Scotland and Northern Ireland in rejecting Boris Johnson’s new “Stay alert, Control the virus, Save lives” advice in favour of keeping the “Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save lives” message amid criticism that the Prime Minister’s new slogan is unclear.
“The message I will be giving to people in Wales is while they must be alert to the continuing danger of coronavirus, if you’re not out of your house for an essential purpose – and that does include exercise, it can include shopping and it must include going to work for people who can safely do so – staying at home remains the best way that you can protect yourself and others,” Mr Drakeford said.
He added: “The fewer contacts you have with other people, the more you
suppress your own risk and the risk to others.
“So being alert is important but staying at home has not gone away.”
Health Minister Vaughan Gething said there was no “four nations agreement or discussion” on the motto’s change.
In a tweet, he said: “I’ve seen the media briefings and changed message for England. There has not been a four nations agreement or discussion on this.
“The Welsh Government message has not changed. Stay at home and if you do go out observe the social distancing rules”.
Jeremy Miles, counsel general for Wales, tweeted: “In Wales, the very clear message is to STAY HOME AND SAVE LIVES.
“That’s what we ALL need to do, in order to get the virus under control.
“It’s been many weeks of restrictions, it’s really tough for a lot of people but we are not remotely out of the woods yet. #StayHomeSaveLives”
Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru, tweeted: “Now is not the time to drop the ‘stay at home’ message.
“The consequences could be disastrous. Instead let’s drive new cases right down and build up testing and tracing. That’s the only way to exit lockdown safely.”
After a Cobra meeting with the PM and devolved leaders, Ms Sturgeon told the Westminster Government not to deploy the stay alert message north of the border, warning the “vague and imprecise” slogan could be “catastrophic”.
The First Minister said she does not know what “stay alert means”, adding: “Presumably we all live our lives in normal times staying alert to danger.”
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster also said the nation will continue to use the “stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives” message.
A further 12 people in Wales have died with coronavirus, bringing the total to 1,111, Public Health Wales
confirmed yesterday.
There are now 11,344 confirmed cases of Covid-19, it said, after 223 more people tested positive for the virus.
Across the country, 2,017 tests had been carried out within the previous 24 hours.
On Friday, the Welsh Government announced a further three weeks of the measures in Wales, with three small changes due to take place from today. People in Wales will be able to exercise more than once a day, with garden centres allowed to reopen with social distancing guidelines in place, and local authorities starting planning on how to safely open libraries and recycling centres.
The Welsh Government’s Technical Advisory Cell estimates the R value – the number of people the average infected individual would spread the virus to – to currently be around 0.8 in Wales.
Modelling shows that if R remains at 0.8 over the next three months, there will be an estimated 5,100 new cases, 2,800 hospital admissions and 800 deaths.
Mr Drakeford told the BBC yesterday that the R value being below one gave “a little bit of headroom” to make the small changes to lockdown restrictions.
“We will monitor the impact of these modest measures to see whether R begins to creep up – we think it won’t but it’s a virus full of surprises,” he said.
“We won’t do more until we are sure that we continue to have headroom between where we are in Wales, and where we would begin to get above that one figure.”
Mr Drakeford said lockdown could not “go on forever” due to the impacts on people’s health and on the economy.
It came as Mr Johnson also laid out a “road map” during an address from Downing Street last night of how England plans to ease the current restrictions – with unlimited amounts of exercise allowed from Wednesday and, from today, “anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction and manufacturing, should be activly encouraged to go to work”.
He insisted this was not the end of the strict measures he imposed on March 23, saying it would be “madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike”.
“No, this is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week,” said the Prime Minister. “Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.”
Meanwhile, he announced that a new alert system is being established to monitor the threat posed by Covid 19.
Mr Drakeford told Sky that the Welsh Government’s relationship with the UK Government was one of “fits and starts”.
“When there is engagement it is good and it is helpful, and I wish there could be more of it,” he said.
He said he did not wish to see “fundamentally different” lockdown restrictions in England and Wales as it would be confusing and make the “basic message hard to convey”.
Mr Drakeford told the BBC that over the next three weeks, the Welsh Government would be considering whether routine procedures that been postponed could be restarted.
Schools will not open at the beginning of June but there will be discussions with teaching unions, local authorities and parents about when and how they could do so, he said.
Following two previous shipments, a flight carrying about 600,000 fluid-resistant gowns and 300,000 fluid-resistant surgical masks is due to arrive at Cardiff Airport from Hanghzhou, China, this week.