Another lockdown may be needed in Wales to stop the NHS being overwhelmed as the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital soared to a record high.
There are now more than 1,800 people in Welsh hospitals with confirmed or suspected coronavirus – the highest number recorded and 400 more than the previous peak in April.
Describing the situation as “incredibly serious”, the Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, accepted more restrictions might be needed, possibly even before Christmas.
The figures come just a month after the end of a 17-day “firebreak” lockdown, which was believed at the time to have been successful and was expected to give the country a clear run up to the new year.
But the Welsh government has since conceded that it might have been better to bring in other curbs when the firebreak was lifted.
At a press conference on Monday, Gething said coronavirus cases were rising again across almost the whole of Wales. The country was the only part of the UK where infection rates were not falling at the end of November, he said.
The minister said the latest data shows that the all-Wales case rate was almost 70 points higher on Monday than it was on Friday. “This shows you how just fast coronavirus is spreading,” he said.
According to the latest UK government statistics, on 1 December Wales had a seven-day case rate of 267.8 for every 100,000 people. That compared with 149.5 in England, 143.6 in Northern Ireland, and 100.3 in Scotland.
Gething said there were eight local authorities with rates higher than 400 cases for every 100,000 people – four times as many areas as on Friday. In 19 of the 22 local authority areas cases were rising.
“Sadly, we are seeing a return to the very high rates of more than 500 in Blaenau Gwent and 600 in Neath Port Talbot [both areas of south Wales],” he said.
Asked how seriously the government was considering another lockdown, Gething said: “We’re actively considering each day whether the measures we have are the right ones or not. We’re actively considering what we may need to do after the Christmas period.”
He added: “Everything is on the table. We’re discussing through this week, and we’ll continue to discuss, what measures we need to take.
“We’ve learned that trying to have hard and fast commitments to never contemplate future action is just not the right or the responsible thing to do. So of course that’s an option that we’ll need to consider.”
When asked if changes to the rules before or during Christmas could also be needed he said: “If we need to act at a different point in time we will do … If we need to act further we will do. We’re still committed to doing everything we can to keep Wales safe.”
More restrictions in the hospitality industry came into force on Friday, which included banning licensed premises from serving alcohol and forcing them to shut by 6pm.
Gething said effects from the new measures would not be seen for a fortnight. In recent weeks, shopping centres in Wales have been busy and there is fear that the virus is being transmitted in homes with the cold weather discouraging people from meeting outside.
Swansea Bay university health board’s public health director, Dr Keith Reid, warned that Covid cases in the area could reach “catastrophic levels” unless people followed social distancing rules and said the health system would be overwhelmed if cases continued to increase at the current rate. He blamed people mixing with each other for the rise.
