Praise for ‘vigilance and good behaviour of citizens in Wrexham’ for keeping coronavirus spread low as concerns increase in North Wales

Wrexham’s earlier experiences during the pandemic have been help up as positive example to the people of Wales ahead of high level meetings with North Wales council leaders about issues surfacing in the region.

Currently there are four areas in north Wales – Flintshire, Conwy, Anglesey and Denbighshire – which are on the Welsh Government ‘watch list’ for potential tighter coronavirus restrictions.

However at today’s Welsh Government briefing Ken Skates, Economy, Transport and North Wales Minister, highlighted how Wrexham managed to drive down the infection rate during a spike in cases over the summer.

Following an outbreak connected to the Rowan Foods factory on the Wrexham Industrial Estate and at the hospital, mobile testing units were introduced in Caia Park and Hightown to find out if coronavirus was widespread within the community.

However after several days and over 1,400 tests, transmission was found to be “significantly lower” than had been initially feared.

Today Mr Skates, who is also Member of the Senedd for the Clwyd South constituency, paid tribute to the work carried out in Wrexham during that time.

He said: “Clearly, infection rates are not as high in most parts of North Wales and actually, if you look at one particular local authority area, Wrexham, back in August, there was much talk locally, of the possibility of a local lockdown.

“But because of the Test, Trace and Protect regime that was put in place, because of the hard work of public bodies working together, and it has to be said because of the vigilance and good behaviour of citizens in Wrexham County Borough, we saw levels fall dramatically.

“We are hoping that in the north we will see a similar reduction in figures so it would enable us to avoid local lockdowns or a regional lockdown.”

“Obviously, some parts of North Wales are registering higher numbers than other areas but there is no doubt based on what I’m hearing from local authority leaders in the north that while, people are concerned about Coronavirus people are acting responsibly, everybody responding to the need to act in a way that prevents a further spread of the virus.”

“We will be discussing this here this issue with local leaders in the North of Wales before reaching any decision on whether local lockdowns are required in any of the six local authority areas. ”

We asked the Minister about the rise in positive proportion rates in Denbighshire and Flintshire, which match similar figures to areas that have now been locked down in South Wales, and for further detail on the situation in the North.

The Minister replied, “The data shifts quite swiftly from one day to the next. Our understanding is that in many instances across Wales and across the UK, particularly earlier in the autumn period, transmissions were taking place largely in domestic dwellings, rather than in in restaurants or pubs, or cafes.

“We were finding the transmission was taking place because people were gathering in pretty significant numbers within homes. We’ve been pressing people not to do that. We introduced the maximum £10,000 fines for illegal gatherings as a consequence of the police asking us to introduce that particular measure, to drive down the the possibilities of domestic gatherings, adding to transmission rates.

“As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s absolutely vital that people behave in a responsible way, that they adhere to the rules, regulations, the guidance, and that they think about their own health and safety. They think about health and safety of their families and their entire community.”

Below are the two latest data dumps from Public Health Wales, first showing the latest figures issued today and the second being the seven day rolling period for the 19th-25 of September.

Figures released today for the day-on-day stats.

Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said today: “The council areas of Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Flintshire are all areas of concern to us and we are watching the data from there carefully, but numbers of cases are increasing in all parts of Wales so there is no room for complacency in any area.

“We are also seeing an increase in the number of people who are seriously ill and have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

The seven day rolling period figures.

Dr Giri Shankar added, “We are concerned that much of the good work conducted over the past few months is at risk of going to waste. If the situation continues to worsen, we may find ourselves at the same levels of infection that we experienced earlier this year in March and April, and with that comes the potential for more extended restrictions to be imposed nationally.”

“Coronavirus has not gone away. It remains the responsibility of everyone to help prevent the spread of this virus to protect older and vulnerable family members and friends. They should do this by self-isolating when asked to do so, staying two metres away from others, and by washing hands regularly.”