MORNING SERIAL
IN A break from the norm (whatever that was anymore) the Prime Minister then announced that he would reveal the planned changes to lockdown in a pre-recorded television address on Sunday, May 10 – leaving no chance for journalist questions or parliamentary scrutiny. As I said before, nothing like a healthy democracy right? With Boris not appearing until Sunday, the First Minister went ahead and announced what the next three weeks of lockdown would look like for people in Wales. He began his statement talking about the R rate (which was greater than 2.0 at the start of the crisis) saying it was now between 0.7 and 0.9.
According to the First Minister the current modelling in Wales suggested that 800 people would die of coronavirus in Wales in the following three months if the R rate remained at 0.8. An increase to 0.9 would result in 1,400 deaths, and a rate of 1.1 would cause 7,200 deaths in the same period, with a predicted 47,600 infections and 25,700 hospital admissions.
Mr Drakeford said: “We must not lose the progress we have made. All of us must continue to work from home wherever they can. All of us must only travel when absolutely necessary. All of us must continue to observe the two-metre social distancing and to wash our hands often.”
He announced three modest changes to the lockdown from Monday 11. Exercise would be allowed more than once a day (a great relief to many). Councils could decide to open libraries and recycling centres if they wished. There were good reasons to open libraries again: social distancing in them is fairly simple to maintain and the people who would benefit most were those on low incomes, and young people struggling to work in a crowded home environment. Finally, garden centres could reopen if social distancing could be maintained.
None of these changes applied to the 120,000 people in the shielding group who were still condemned to sit in their houses, isolated from loved ones and hoping they could book a supermarket delivery slot.
Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013