Wales will follow data rather than UK Government politics on reopening says Health Minister
Wales’ Health Minister has said that Wales will “follow the data rather than the politics”, as the UK Government push for a full reopening by 19 July.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm that almost all Covid restrictions in England will be lifted in two weeks – including making face masks voluntary and ending the 1m-plus social distancing rule.
Robert Jenrick, Boris Johnson’s Communities Secretary, meanwhile, had said that he hoped the UK should “move as one” out of Covid-19 restrictions.
But Health Minister Eluned Morgan said that they will “follow the data rather than the politics” as it was “very clear that we are still in a very difficult situation because case numbers are increasing exponentially in Wales”.
“Boris Johnson will do what is right for England and we will do what is right for Wales,” she said. She added that “time and time again deadlines have been set in England and missed”.
“In an ideal world we would like to move together,” she added. “But here we’ve been following the data and will continue to do that.”
She said that they would be considering the situation over the next few days for an announcement next week.
‘Confident’
Eluned Morgan added however that “we’re very happy to see that there’s not as much of a connection between Covid and the number entering our hospitals”.
“We will have to learn to live with the illness and learn to adapt as a society to a situation where we will be exposed to this new variant and to coronavirus more generally,” she said.
Eluned Morgan added that she was “confident this wave will not cause the same amount of harm as previous waves”.
“We believe that vaccine has weakened the link between the virus and hospitalisation even with the new variant. However, it’s very important that people complete the course. One dose is not enough.”
She added that there will likely be “huge winter pressures” in coming months.
‘As one’
Yesterday Robert Jenrick, Boris Johnson’s Communities Secretary, told The Andrew Marr Show that the UK Government wants the other nations of the UK to follow England and lift all legal coronavirus rules on July 19.
He said the Westminster government was going to “work with” Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to “try and be as coordinated as possible”.
Jenrick said: “We would like the whole of the Union to move as one. We are going to work with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to try and be as coordinated as possible.
“Cases are slightly different in each of the four nations but certainly in England, our view is that things are looking positive for July 19.”
“We now have to move into a different period where we learn to live with the virus, we take precautions and we as individuals take personal responsibility.”
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“Johnson will do what is right for England”???? No… Johnson will do what business interests tell him to do and sod the deaths. The victims will be mainly working class peasants after all. If Wales was free we could put England on our red list until good people there wake up and throw out the chancers who are running their show.
So are Westminster also posturing political pygmies? because we’ve opened up more than them so far. I don’t think you understand the data so I think I’ll take the Senedd approach and trust the actual experts.
I’m not so obsessed with keeping restrictions now – maybe it’s the right thing to do, maybe it’s not but unlikely we find out until 3 weeks after they’ve been lifted – but would definitely like to see a culture change so that more people voluntarily wear masks on public transport and inside places without great ventilation during winter time so we can ease pressure on the NHS every year. We’ve spoken about flu deaths as if it’s some acceptable target for covid but we’ve seen over past few months how an effective vaccine program and a nation more aware… Read more »
I’ll certainly be keeping hold of my mask for a while. Too many plague vector conspiracists about still. I’ll ditch them in due course, when I think the … ahem … “stragglers” have grown up a bit
Like those in east asia, sensible. One or two bringing flu into small firms can set a company back a couple of weeks-
The daily hospitalizations admission stats on the 29th of June 2021 for the whole of the UK are roughly the same as the 21st/22nd of September in 2020 (10 less than the 21st, 9 more than the 22nd) which is the date that SAGE first recommended a circuit breaker. The 29th of June picked because latest date showing for this figure on UK Covid stats page. Continuing to make comparisons based on whole of the UK: patients in hospital on 1st of July 2021 are roughly same as those in hospital on 16th of September 2020 and those in mechanical… Read more »