North Wales MS confirms new Covid-19 strain has been identified in the region

Wales has gone into a national lockdown early after growing fears about the new strain of coronavirus.

It comes as a North Wales politician has confirmed the new coronavirus variant has already been identified in the region.

First Minister Mark Drakeford announced level four lockdown restrictions would be brought forward from December 28th and begin at midnight on Saturday.

The move followed a Welsh Government cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss the new development in the pandemic and to hear the latest advice from senior medical and scientific advisers.

Alert level four means people will not be allowed to mix with anyone they do not live with, with only single person households allowed to form an exclusive support bubble with one other household.

A five day easing of restrictions over the Christmas period where two families plus a single person could meet up has now been cut to just Christmas Day.

On Saturday evening, Deputy Leader of Plaid Cymru and Ynys Môn MS, Rhun ap Iorwerth said he was told by Health minister Vaughan Gething the new Covid -19 strain was already in North Wales.

He said: “I’ve spoken to the health minister this evening, I wanted to learn more about this more virulent, this more aggressive strain of Coronavirus that has been identified.

“I’ll be pushing for more information in coming days about its presence in the north-east and the north-west.

“It’s important that people have as much information as possible so they can understand why what is driving government’s decisions.

“Nobody wants these restrictions but I think everybody understands that this, as we’ve seen in the huge increases in case numbers and parts of Wales, England, Scotland, that we are at a at a worrying stage of this pandemic and we need to protect health and protect the NHS.”

Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Dr Frank Atherton, issued a statement on the latest developments on Saturday evening.

He said: “I have agreed that Wales needs to strengthen current restrictions and I support a move to alert level four from midnight on the 19^th of December.“

“I have also agreed a change to the arrangements for Christmas relaxation, in which two households may now only meet for Christmas Day.

“I recognise that this is a difficult ask of the Welsh public however, a new SARS-Cov-2 variant has been identified across the UK.

“Whilst there have been several variants of SARS-Cov-2, there is rapidly emerging evidence that the N501Y viral variant is of increasing importance in the pandemic and appears to be significantly more transmissible than the wild type virus.

“Analysis shows that the new variant is spreading across the UK and hospital admissions have increased markedly in areas with higher levels of the variant in recent weeks, despite the existence of level 3 restrictions in the community.”

Although it only includes a small sample size, an ONS study has shown that a significant proportion of COVD-19 infections is Wales are due to the new variant.

Dr Atherton said it was “unlikely” to be lower than 11% of new infections and could be as high as 60%.

Some areas could have higher levels than others, but the limited data suggest the variant is present in different parts of Wales, including the north.

Currently, the seven-day incidence rate in Wales from 8 to 14 December is 587.2 cases per 100,000, which has increased from 525.3 just two days ago.

This has increased from 231.6 per 100,000 people for the period between 23 and 29 November.

Dr Atherton said: “Alongside this, the test positivity rate over the same period has increased to 22.3% for Wales as a whole.

“Emerging public health advice suggest that the new variant is at least contributing to, and possibly driving, this growth rate.”

“Given the risk of further high growth continuing, to contain the harm of the pandemic and prevent already strained NHS resources from being overwhelmed level four measures will need to be brought forward as soon as possible.”

The First Minister said: “This new strain of the virus is another dreadful surprise in this long-running pandemic.

“We now have a pandemic within a pandemic, a crisis within a crisis.

“It is another challenge we must overcome. But one we will overcome together.

“We will continue to protect ourselves and our loved ones, and, together, we will keep Wales safe.

“Our economy will recover. Christmas will come again. But lives which are lost, are lost for ever.”