[ad_1]
Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford has revealed details of Wales’ plan for a two- to three-week national “firewall” lockdown.
Drakeford spoke at the Welsh Government press conference on Friday in Cathays Park. You can follow the live updates from that here.
He said the Welsh government’s plan would cause people to be confined to their homes and shut down businesses for two to three weeks to give the virus a “short and sharp impact.”
It is expected that if the ministers decide to go ahead with it, this could be announced on Monday, October 19 next week and take effect on Friday, October 23.
Drakeford said: “We will all have to act together to reduce coronavirus levels and keep them low through the winter.”
“We are looking very carefully at the introduction of a limited time ‘firewall’, also known as a circuit breaker of the type recommended by SAGE, the UK scientific advisory group, and our own advisers here in Wales.
“This would be a short, sharp shock to the virus, which could turn back the clock, slow its spread and buy us more time and vital capacity on the NHS.”
Mark Drakeford says the Welsh government ‘will do everything it can’ to keep schools open:
Video not available
“A” firewall “would also mean a short, sharp shock to all of our lives.
“We would all have to stay home to save lives once again. But this time it would be for weeks, not months.
“We are considering a two or three week ‘firewall.’ The shorter the period, the more accurate the measurements will have to be.
“A successful firewall would reset the virus to a lower level. Coupled with a new set of national rules for all of Wales after the firewall period, we would have slowed the virus down long enough to make it to Christmas.”
The Prime Minister said that the rate of Covid-19 infections was now over 100 cases per 100,000 people with an R number of 1.4, which means it was increasing exponentially.
He said: “The R number for Wales is 1.4. These figures mean that about 2,500 people are infected every day. And the increase in that number is faster every week.
“At the current rate of growth, we will exceed the March peak at the end of this month.
Do you feel capable of continuing to follow the rules? Tell us in this survey:
“Now, I want to make it clear that these figures would have been much higher if we had not acted quickly and quickly to implement local and national measures.
“Thanks to everything he has done, we are still in a better place in Wales than anywhere else in the UK.
“But we are already seeing the increase in cases in the community leading to an increase in people admitted to the hospital.
“Last week there were 500 people in the hospital; at the beginning of this week there were 700. Yesterday there were 825.”
He said the situation was “very dire” and “unless we can get the coronavirus back under control, there is a real risk that the NHS will be overwhelmed … and if that happens, more people will die as a result.”
He said ministers would meet over the weekend to make a final decision on the “firewall.”
[ad_2]
