September 24, 2020 - 1784 views
New cases of COVID-19 fell slightly across Wales in the past day although the trend has continued to move upwards over the past week.
This afternoon's bulletin from Public Health Wales reports 348 cases along with one additional death.
Whilst the majority of positive cases are in the South of the country, the 31 new cases in North Wales are continuing to attract concern particularly in Flintshire where 10 new cases were reported.
Conwy has 7 new cases, 5 have been reported in Wrexham, 4 in Gwynedd, 3 in Denbighshire and 2 in Gwynedd.
As reported yesterday by Public Health Wales, officials are closely monitoring cases in Flintshire, Anglesey, Conwy and Denbighshire as these average number of cases per 100,000 of population are significantly higher than the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board average based on a rolling two week average.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething has ruled out any North Wales local lockdowns for now but said that Public Health Wales will continue to keep a close watch on the new cases.
Dr Robin Howe, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said:
“Public Health Wales welcomes the launch of the new NHS COVID-19 app today.
“The app forms a central part of the NHS Wales Test Trace Protect programme. We would encourage as many people to download and use the app as possible to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
“Some of the new restrictions announced earlier this week around pubs and restaurants will come into force today. These restrictions mean that pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises must close at 10pm, and offer table service only. Off licenses, including supermarkets and other retail outlets, must also stop selling alcohol at 10pm.
“The ‘rule of six’ means that only six people from the same extended household can meet indoors.
“In addition, the Welsh Government has announced strengthened regulations and support for employees and employers who are required to self-isolate.
“In the areas where local restrictions have been brought in (the council areas of Caerphilly County, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Bridgend, Blaenau Gwent and Newport), then those rules must be followed. Details of these rules can be found on the Welsh Government website.
“We are continuing to see a steady increase in cases in many communities across Wales, and our investigations show that many of these have been transmitted due to a lack of social distancing.
“The council areas of Cardiff, Swansea, the Vale of Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire are all areas of concern to us and we are watching the data from there carefully, but numbers of cases are increasing in all parts of Wales so there is no room for complacency in any area.
“We are also seeing an increase in the number of people who are seriously ill and have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
“We are concerned that much of the good work conducted over the past few months is at risk of going to waste. If the situation continues to worsen, we may find ourselves at the same levels of infection that we experienced earlier this year in March and April; and with that comes the potential for more extended restrictions to be imposed nationally."
