MORNING SERIAL
HE added that “it’s worth reflecting that the ’flu makes people severely unwell and kills people every year, and yet, we still can’t persuade people who are in a category where they can receive a free NHS vaccine, to take that up in the numbers we’d want them to. So, let’s have some perspective on it.” In the same debate Vaughan Gething described ‘quarantine’ as “a dreadful, old-fashioned word” – we couldn’t know that it would soon become part of our vernacular along with ‘furlough’, ‘social distancing’, ‘ramp up’ and ‘flattening the curve’.
What this debate demonstrated was that as early as January it was known that Covid-19 was a threat, that it could incubate for a considerable amount of time, that it was killing people and that both the UK and Welsh Government had time to prepare. As we moved into February life went on, coronavirus was a news item, but not the news item. Wales hosted Italy in the Six Nations at the Principality Stadium in February. No-one knew that the virus had already started to take root in the Lombardy area, with Italy soon to see the first mass outbreak and then lockdown in Europe. On the 21st the first lockdowns covering 10 municipalities in the province of Lodi in Lombardy and one in the province of Padua in Veneto began, covering around 50,000 people. But even then, as an advanced healthcare system began to be overwhelmed – still life went on. The very next day Italy hosted Scotland in the Six Nations at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome – Scotland fans travelled to watch the game. Just two weeks later on March 8 the lockdown would cover the entire north of the country before being extended to the whole of Italy the following day.
On March 1, 62 days after Dr Li Wenliang’s warning, Wales had its first known case of the virus – a person from the Swansea area who had recently returned from northern Italy. This took the UK total to 355 with some identified as originating in Italy and Iran. A cause for concern was that it was unclear how some of the infected people had contracted it, suggesting community transmission.
> Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013
CONTINUES MONDAY