First Minister Mark Drakeford has outlined the decision-making process behind any potential lifting of local lockdown restrictions.
A weekly review into the local lockdowns will be held every Thursday.
Responding to a question posed to him by Caerphilly’s Senedd Member Hefin David in the Welsh Parliament, the First Minister said public health experts scrutinise the data during the first part of the week, taking into account the number of new cases on a seven-day rolling total.
Mr Drakeford said: “That will then be reported on Thursday of this week [October 8] to a meeting that will involve the Welsh Government.”
He confirmed that Health Minister Vaughan Gething and Caerphilly County Borough Council leader Philippa Marsden would be in attendance, as would representatives from Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Gwent Police.
He added: “That meeting will discuss whether or not we have a reliable enough reduction in the figures and incidence in the Caerphilly area to begin the process of lifting local lockdown restrictions.”
He then confirmed government ministers would then have the final say on whether local lockdown restrictions can begin to be lifted.
However, Mr Drakeford warned: “I want to be clear that I don’t believe that there will be an ability to lift all restrictions in one go.
“We will start with some measures and build them up over a period of weeks.”
Meanwhile, a study carried out by Imperial College London has predicted Caerphilly will be the only local authority area in Wales and England that will see the number of new coronavirus cases drop in the next fortnight.
Dr Robin Howe, incident director at Public Health Wales, said: “Following the introduction of restrictions in the borough of Caerphilly, our data is beginning to show a downward trend.
“Although we cannot categorically say this trend is a result of lockdown, we are cautiously optimistic and we are looking at a number of alternative sources to validate these results.”
However, Health Minister Mr Gething said the area is still on Welsh Government’s concern list, but said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the reduction in cases in the county borough.
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This lockdown is doing the economy no good, and is playing a huge impact on peoples mental health.
It is the fault of the people not the pubs etc when leaving the venues there is no social distancing no good complaining until we the people act responsibly more and more lockdown will occur not the government or anyone else’s it is us the people so stop complaining and start complying
I almost wish that the shielding hadnt stopped,when it was stopped found it very hard to go out,having said that my granddaughter came and took me out. Our communal lounge was loked and we were not allowed to meet with people from other flats in our complex. Then it was finished in 3 weeks, and I think it is harder going into lockdown now because we had just got use to being out again. It is harder
Keep the schools and universities open
It wasn’t difficult to workout what the Welsh governments plan was when they initially announced a lockdown of one county. Creating a staggered programme would typically lengthen the lockdown period for all of us. They need to extend the lockdown with Caerphilly in order for the rest to catch up, so be prepared everyone for yours to extend because they are stuck and unsure how to get out of it.