Concern centre of virus fight has moved to north
PEOPLE in north Wales are becoming more concerned that the centre of the coronavirus fight has moved their way.
In the early days of the Covid-19 crisis it was all about the Gwent area, then Cardiff, the Vale and Valleys saw numbers start to spike.
However, in recent days there has been a real acceleration the numbers of cases in the areas of Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd and Wrexham.
Yesterday, the Betsi Cadwaldr University Health Board had more new cases than any other at 48. This is more than the previous hotspots of Cardiff and Newport combined.
This has been going on for more than 10 days.
On May 4 Betsi Cadwaldr Health Board yet again saw the biggest rise.
The north Wales board saw 51 new cases ahead of Cardiff and Vale who had 34. Since then the Cardiff cases have fallen but the north Wales cases have not.
This suggests that the peak has not been reached in north Wales and many people in the area are keen that restrictions are not lifted too early just because other parts of the country are past the peak.
People are naturally very concerned about tourists coming into Wales from England and bringing Covid-19 into communities.
Earlier this week, a family from Liverpool who had travelled to their second home on Anglesey returned home after police spoke to them about concerns for their safety.
Yesterday, a driver admitted travelling from Middlesex in camper van and was sent home from the seafront in Tywyn, in Gwynedd.
Many Welsh politicians have expressed concern over people travelling into Wales, especially after Prime Minister Boris Johnson lifted some restrictions in England and said people could go to the beach.
MS for Afon Siân Gwenllian said: “In the Senedd, I once again asked the First Minister to introduce new powers to deal with people from outside the area arriving to tourist spots and to stay in their second homes but I was very disappointed that the Welsh Government does not see this as a priority.”
This was echoed by Liz SavilleRoberts, MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, who said she was: “highly concerned” that the peak infection period does not yet appear to have been reached in Gwynedd and the Betsi Cadwaladr health region.
She said: “Mixed messages from Welsh and UK Governments combined with the possibility of more people endeavouring to travel both within Wales and from communities in England mean that the threat of yet further Covid-19 cases and deaths is very real.”
When looking at the data, talking about “Betsi Cadwaldr Health Board” as an area is perhaps unhelpful. Adding Wrexham to the same analysis as Bethesda is too simplistc.
Take the numbers for yesterday. With 16 new cases, Wrexham was the highest area with nowhere else having more than 10.
However, once you start getting that low level in terms of numbers it is hard to draw any conclusions.
There could be some insights in the total figures for each area.
The three north Wales local authorities with the most cases are (in order): Wrexham (381), Denbighshire (370) and Flintshire (362). The two lowest are Gwynedd (317) and Anglesey (141).
Just like the virus moved east to west in the south of Wales, so is it apparently doing in the north with the most easterly areas most affected.
But is this tourists flocking to Wrexham? Or is it proximity to the large population centres in northwest England?
MS for Alyn and Deeside constituency Jack Sargeant thinks so.
“I am, of course, concerned by this spike,” he said.
“We should, however, recognise that it is not unexpected, that different areas see spikes at different times.”
Simon Baynes, Conservative MP of Clywd South, called for caution when looking at the figures saying: “When considering the number of cases in north Wales, it is important to look at where they come from within the region and what the particular background is in each case before drawing too many conclusions.”
When the Western Mail approached Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales, about the issue of a potential spike in north Wales he pointed to two things - testing and hospitals.
On testing, he suggested that there had been an increase in target tests, especially in care homes in north Wales, so that could be reason for the increase.
He also said that another key metric, critical care bed occupancy, was looking more postive.
He said that north Wales hospitals critical care beds were “seeing less occupancy than the peak two or three weeks ago”.