Face masks reintroduced at hospitals as cases rise
FACE masks have been reintroduced in hospitals across one South Wales health board as Covid cases in the community and staff absences have risen.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which covers the former Gwent area, announced in a statement yesterday that the rule will be introduced with immediate effect. All hospital staff and visitors are included and will need to wear masks in clinical areas.
The statement read: “Due to the increasing prevalence of Covid-19 in the community, the increased number of Covid-19 ward outbreaks, and the numbers of staff absent with Covid-19 we are asking all hospital staff and visitors to wear masks in clinical areas with immediate effect.
“Thank you for your support and cooperation in reducing the risk to our patients and staff.
“We will continue to review the Covid19 position in hospital and community settings, and will update accordingly.”
Mask-wearing laws in health and care settings were scrapped by the Welsh Government at the end of last month.
It marked the end of Covid restrictions which had been in place for more than two years.
Latest figures published on Friday showed a significant rise in cases in Wales and other parts of the UK.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Covid cases in all parts of the UK had risen in the space of a week, driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron
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variants – but added that it was too soon to say if it is a new wave.
A total of 1.4 million people in private households in the UK were estimated to have had the virus in the week leading up to last Friday, up 43% from 989,800 on the previous week’s figures.
The figures for Wales released on Friday, showed that 64,800 of people had coronavirus – which equates to 2.13% of the population, or 1 in 45 people. That compared to 40,500 people for the week ending June 2 – equating to 1.33% of the population, or about one in 75 people.
Other recent data has also shown a rise in cases. The results of lateral flow tests, which are still being provided in Wales for people with symptoms, and from the smaller number of PCR tests taken in hospitals and other healthcare settings, showed there were 6,247 positive cases in the week up to June 11.
That was equivalent to an infection rate of 197 cases for every 100,000 people in that week and was up from an infection rate of 104 a week earlier on June 4.
Following the release of the latest ONS figures, Wales’ top medical expert Dr Frank Atherton said it was likely that the country is heading into another wave of coronavirus.
However, he said he was “hopeful” draconian restrictions would not need to be imposed.