Outcome of 21 day review of covid restrictions in Wales to be announced this week
The outcome of the latest three-week review of the current covid restrictions in Wales is set to be announced at the end of this week.
Wales has been in alert level zero – the lowest level of restrictions – since August.
This removed legal restrictions on meeting others and enabled all businesses to open, while also keeping key legal protections in place. Face coverings are mandatory in most public settings, everyone must continue to isolate if they have Covid symptoms or a positive test result, and businesses must take reasonable measures to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus.
Adults who are fully vaccinated and children and young people under 18, also no longer need to isolate if they are identified as close contacts of someone who has coronavirus.
At a coronavirus press conference on Friday (10 September) First Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed that this week be would be meeting with cabinet ministers to discuss the outcome of the three week review.
This is expected to be revealed by the first minister on Friday (17 September).
Although there was no indication of any changes to the existing measures in place, Mr Drakeford warned that coronavirus cases in Wales are expected to continue to rise before they peak.
He also urged people people in Wales to help ease the pressure faced by the NHS which was described as being in “serious” position in relation to covid-19.
There are currently approximately 40 new Covid related hospital admissions in Wales every day. Just over 420 people with confirmed cases of the virus are being treated in in hospital – the a highest number seen in Wales since March.
During Friday’s briefing, Mr Drakeford repeatedly rebuffed the suggestion that further lockdown measures were “inevitable”.
The first minister said: “The cabinet will be discussing this week, further measures we can take to help to keep Wales safe and there are all the things that I’ve already outlined that we can continue to go on doing to get
“The health services under enormous pressure but the pressure is not simply from coronavirus, it is from all the other things about service is seeking to do and there are many things that we can do together to help it deal with those pressures short of a return to the sort of measures that we saw earlier in the year.”
He later added: “The key relationship is between the number of people who fall ill in the community and the impact that that then has on the NHS.
“Vaccination has altered that relationship, at the moment we think that relationship continues to be one that is difficult, but manageable.
“There are more things that we can do to help short of a return to the sorts of restrictions we saw over the Christmas period and the beginning of this year.
“I’ll have more to say about that when the cabinet completes its consideration of the three week review.”
Spotted something? Got a story? Email [email protected]