Posted: Thu 11th Mar 2021

Health Minister says he doesn’t expect North Wales to be held in lockdown longer than other areas despite higher case numbers

North Wales news and information
This article is old - Published: Thursday, Mar 11th, 2021

Health Minister Vaughan Gething says he doesn’t expect North Wales to be held in lockdown longer than other parts of the country.

The Welsh Government is carrying out a review of the current “stay at home” coronavirus restrictions in place later this week.

Most signs point towards the whole country moving into a “stay local” arrangement, similar to that seen last spring.

However with rates in the region still higher than other areas, the Health Minister was yesterday asked whether it might result in restrictions being eased more slowly locally.

The latest seven-day case rate figures per 100,000 of the population show Wrexham at 72.1, Anglesey at 71.4, Gwynedd at 67.4, Conwy at 62.3 and Flintshire at 61.5.

There is only one local authority area in the whole of Wales with a higher rate than those five counties with Merthyr Tydfil an outlier at 86.2.

Denbighshire is the only county in the region witnessing a slightly lower rate at 49.1.

However Mr Gething appeared to rule out the possibility of a slower localised easing at one of the regular Covid-19 media briefings following a significant overall reduction in cases compared to the peak of the second wave in mid-January.

He said: “The figures are slightly higher in North Wales, but if you look at the figures for the whole of North Wales, they’re still reducing compared to a week ago.

“If you think about where we were a few weeks ago, we still had some very high rates within North Wales, and they’re a significant move on from there.

“The pace is slightly different in different parts of the country but actually, we’re in a much better position.”

He continued: “At this point, we don’t think we’re going to move different parts of Wales at different speeds, but it is an option, and we’ll have to look at the evidence, and the advice we get at different points in time.

“But I wouldn’t anticipate that North Wales will be held into lockdown for longer than the rest of the country.

“That certainly isn’t the approach that I expect the First Minister to confirm on Friday.”



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