Uncertainty over what is causing Wrexham’s rise in coronavirus – now at 795 per 100k

The leader of Wrexham Council has said there is “uncertainty” over what is causing the current rise in coronavirus cases in the county borough.

Wrexham currently has the second worst rolling seven day figures in the whole of Wales, while other areas are seeing their rates decrease.

Yesterday the county saw another 149 cases reported for the area, with a 28.8% positive proportion of tests.

The rolling seven day benchmark figure for the period up to and including new years eve has a case rate of 795.1 per 100,000 population.

Earlier this week Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the new fast moving strain of the virus could be behind the recent rise in cases.

At a media briefing yesterday we asked Wrexham Council a similar question as one we posed to the Health Minister, with Wrexham now at 795 per 100k with the unwanted position of being the second worse case rate in Wales, with many other areas dropping – what was driving the local spread?

Council Leader Mark Pritchard said: “I think the frankness of it is I don’t think we know.

“We are not 100% sure what it is, and what’s causing it for the variance on the spread to go as high as it is.

“When I say we’re not sure the reason is because we’ve looked at it, and we’ve discussed this at length. I know the Chief Executive has done a lot of work with his officers, with Public Health Wales and Welsh Government, everybody.

“Is it because of the proximity and the closeness to major cities? The M53 and M56? Is it because of the prison or we have the largest industrial estate? Is it because a certain percentage of people in Wrexham are not listening?

“It is a concoction here and a combination. I hope we can get to the bottom of it, and the numbers hit a ceiling and they start to fall. But at this moment in time they’re raising, they’re raising very quickly, and it’s extremely concerning. All of us are very worried for obvious reasons.”

Chief Executive Ian Bancroft explained: “Wrexham is an area of high risk in terms of Wales because of the fact that we have a lot of cross border connection, we have high numbers of students, and as the leader said, we have an industrial estate that’s large. So there are a number of risk factors that put us quite high.

“In terms of spread, the new variant is spreading much quicker and is prevalent in North Wales. What we saw in South Wales was obviously a rise probably about four weeks ago, so are we a tail from some of that in terms of rising later, that may be a reason.

“We obviously know from our geographical analysis the areas where we are high, and there are a number of areas that are in the high percentiles. The analysis is it is spreading within households.

“We would thank residents for being really responsible, but please continue to be responsible, because it’s that social connection and interaction that is the main cause of the virus spreading.

“Anything people can do to stop that spread happening will make a significant difference and get us through to the vaccination program that now is beginning to roll out.

“So it is a complex picture, it is a pandemic, we’re not in control of it.

“We understand some of the reasons why that virus is spreading, but clearly, the basic way of stopping it is to stop social interaction. That’s what we need to be focusing on at this point in time.”