[ad_1]
The Welsh government is considering imposing quarantine periods on people traveling from other parts of the UK.
Unlike in Wales, where people living in locally enclosed areas are prohibited from leaving the county without a reasonable excuse, there are no such restrictions in England.
This means that people in Manchester city, who in a local shutdown and had 495 cases per 100,000 people in the last week, can travel to Ceredigion or Pembrokeshire on vacation, while people in Newport, Gwent, which has 50 cases for the same number of people, you can not.
Prime Minister Mark Drakeford wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week asking him to restrict travel from locked-in areas of England.
According to Health Minister Vaughan Gething, they have had no response from the Prime Minister to the letter, but have assumed, given comments made by Johnson in the Commons and interviews, that he will not impose these restrictions.
Gething said he was “disappointed” that no response had been received, but as the prime minister was “unwilling” to introduce restrictions, he was now “actively considering” introducing travel restrictions to prevent people in high-prevalence areas from the rest of the UK travel to Wales.
He said: “The image we see in the four nations of the UK is a much higher prevalence [of the virus] with some areas having high concentrations.
“The reason the Welsh government has asked the UK government to introduce travel restrictions to high prevalence areas of England is because we know that traveling carries additional risks.
“We know that if people from Liverpool come and are in the same pub and in the same environment as other people, there is a risk that there will be a spread event.”
See live updates from Mr. Gething’s press conference here.
He added that if areas of England like “the North East, North West and West Midlands were other countries” we would have quarantine conditions for them to return to the UK.
He said he didn’t want to take a “nationwide approach” because in areas where “there was no good evidence” to prevent someone from Devon from going on a reserved Pembrkeshire holiday.
The Government of Wales already imposes a 14-day quarantine on travelers from countries with rates of the virus above 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Rate the handling of the coronavirus by the Government of Wales
The Health Minister said the Welsh Government would now consider imposing this also on people coming from parts of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland where cases are high.
Prime Minister Mark Drakeford has previously said that he “does not think it is right for us to put in place a set of border controls to prevent people from elsewhere visiting Wales.”
He added: “I think that would take us into all kinds of abnormal and difficult territory, but I think while we act to prevent people living in hotspots in Wales from traveling to England and risking the virus from them.” “
[ad_2]
