Curve in Wales “still increasing” – Staying home “really will save more lives including front line staff”

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Apr 7th, 2020

The Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said the impact of the lockdown restrictions will soon be known, although pointed out that the curve in Wales is ‘still increasing’.

Due to the lag of coronavirus some affected in the health system, or suffering with it elsewhere, could have contracted it before or shortly after the lockdown began.

The Minister was asked about stats relating to NHS workers with the virus, including those in intensive care and those who have died.

In England per-hospital death data is being released however the Welsh Government has consistently said more detailed information will not be released in Wales yet to avoid people being identifiable.

The below was tweeted earlier today by the Chief Executive of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board:

On behalf of the Organisation I would like to send our sincere condolences to Jitu’ family and friends. He was a great clinician who always put his patients first. He will be missed as a friend and colleague. Rest in Peace pic.twitter.com/sSE3lIiVJc

— Len Richards (@CAV_LenRichards) April 7, 2020

The Health Minister referenced that position in his answer, “We’ve had one particular example of a member of NHS staff who has passed away from Coronavirus.

“I don’t have figures, and part of this is difficult but honest. If we were to provide numbers on individual people, then it’s entirely possible that those people would be individually identified. And the name of the cardiothoracic surgeon is in the public domain, because the family are aware, and because they’ve agreed to the name being released.

“What I don’t think we should do in the understandable quest for more information is to make information available that cuts across where you would all understand that families and their wishes need to be respected to.

“We know that there are a small number of health care workers in intensive care with COVID-19 symptoms and confirmed cases. Again, we won’t be making individual figures available.

The Minister stated the numbers of people he was referencing was ‘relatively low’ now, however added “It is important again to be honest, that we know that a number of our frontline health and care workers will have COVID-19 at various points during the pandemic.

“Those are people who may have that from community transmission, or indeed from the work that they’re doing. It reinforces why personal protective equipment reprovision is my number one priority and the First Minister is making it as the number one urgent priority for the whole government.”

“It also reinforces the fact that we know from other parts of the world, health and care workers have had a higher contact rate and a higher acquisition rate, the more of them who have had COVID-19. There is a real cost to be paid, not just by those people, but it’s why the rest of us need to pay the price in terms of following the rules about staying at home, about protecting our health service.

“In doing so we really will save more lives including front line staff.”

Later the Minister was asked about the current social distancing measures, the impact of them, and if actions are helping ‘flatten the curve’.

The Minister said, “The truth is the significant social distancing measures that we required country to undertake, we will know within two to three weeks or about the point in time, we’re having more information coming to us, about whether it’s helping to flatten the curve.

“We’ll know more over the coming week about where we are, and the SAGE group scientific experts that are advising governments across the UK and indeed our our Chief Scientific health advisor on that. I’m looking at data as it’s coming in.

“But because we can’t be absolutely certain about the impact and what it means about the progress of the pandemic, that’s why the First Minister was very clear yesterday that the social distancing measures we do not anticipate there being a change to those after the Easter weekend. It’s really about how long they’ll carry on for past the Easter weekend and the information we get about the direct impact of those social distancing measures on the progress of the pandemic and the flattening of the curve. So no one should expect there to be a change in social distancing policy straight after Easter.

The Minister was asked specifically ‘where is the curve at the moment’ in Wales.

The Minister said, “In Wales, it’s still increasing. Again, the challenge is the rate at which that’s increasing. We’ll know more again over the next week about whether we’ve intervened enough to lessen the curve.” The key was described as ‘not necessarily flattening it out completely now’ but seeing if a ‘really big sharp upward spike’ turns into a ‘more linear and a gradual increase’ as “…that’s really important to be able to allow services to cope and that is what makes a difference in terms of saving people’s lives.”

Today we asked the following questions however they did not get put forward to the Health Minister.

– The new Public Health Wales dashboard shows the single Cardiff council area has 65% more tests than the entire of the health board that covers North Wales and its six councils. How are the distribution of tests decided?

– We have had concerns raised about the expiry dates of PPE being supplied. Can the Minister confirm all the PPE being distributed is within its use by date?

– Is there an agreement for firefighters to drive ambulances in Wales yet, and if so how long before they are trained and active?

– Do you think there is a responsibility on retailers to only sell essential items? Locally we have heard of a DIY and garden shopping sprees to stop boredom, and to help peoples mental health during lockdown.

You can view today’s brief + Q&A below: