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Three more counties in Wales will be blocked locally following an increase in coronavirus cases.
Neath Port Talbot, Vale of Glamorgan and Torfaen will join many other parts of the UK to be subject to COVID-19 restrictions.
The action will affect more than 360,000 people and means that half of the Welsh local authority areas, 11 out of 22, will soon be under specialized measures.
This map shows restricted areas prior to today’s announcement
The new restrictions at Neath Port Talbot, Vale of Glamorgan and Torfaen will take effect from 6pm on Monday.
They include:
- Residents are not allowed to enter or leave these areas without a reasonable excuse, such as traveling for work or education
- Residents cannot meet people they don’t live with indoors, whether in homes, pubs, or elsewhere, without good reason, such as providing care.
- Residents will not be able to form or be in extended homes or bubbles
- All authorized establishments must stop serving alcohol at 10 pm
- All ages 11 and over will be required to wear face covers indoors that are open to the public.
More than 15.6 million people, just under a quarter of the UK population, were already under localized coronavirus measures on Sunday night, before the announcement of the three new counties in Wales.
The new measures were due to take effect in Cardiff and Swansea from 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.
In the two largest cities in Wales, people will not be able to enter or leave the areas without a reasonable excuse.
They won’t be able to meet inside with anyone they don’t live with, with the extended homes suspended.
Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford said on Sunday: “Following a worrying increase in coronavirus cases in South Wales, we took action on Friday to introduce local coronavirus restrictions in Llanelli and local restrictions will take effect at our two Larger cities: Cardiff and Swansea – tonight.
“We are now taking further action and placing three more areas under local restrictions in South Wales – Neath Port Talbot, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan – because we are seeing increased rates in these three areas.”
“These areas also share borders with areas of local authorities where the rates are much higher.”
Drakeford said the “difficult decision” was made in an effort to “protect people’s health and try to break the chain of transmission and prevent the situation from getting worse.”
“This is not a regional blockade, it is a series of local restrictions in each area of local authority to respond to a specific increase in cases in each area, which have different and unique transmission chains,” the prime minister added.
“In some places, like Caerphilly and Newport, we’ve seen really positive declines in response and we hope they can start to relax if they continue.”
Bans on domestic mixing went into effect in Wigan, Stockport, Blackpool and Leeds on Saturday, while stricter rules are already in place in large swaths of the North West, West Yorkshire, the North East and the Midlands, as well as parts of West Scotland . .
The ban on homes mixing indoors was extended to Northern Ireland and Scotland earlier this week.
