Here is what has to happen for lockdown restrictions to be lifted

The Welsh Government has told Caerphilly Observer what the situation must look like across the county for restrictions to be lifted.

The local lockdown came into effect on Tuesday, September 8, and the Welsh Government has warned it may last until October.

First Minster Mark Drakeford told Caerphilly Observer the number of positive cases must fall to below pre-local lockdown levels and stay low for a period of time for restrictions to be lifted.

He also said there must not be a surge of hospitalisations and patients in critical care beds.

Speaking at the Welsh Government’s daily press briefing on Friday, September 11, Mr Drakeford said: “It’s very important people do have a sense of how we will make that judgement and we will make it against a set of measures, that we have already set out.

“The key thing will be the number of daily new infections in Caerphilly must start falling instead of rising. It must then fall consistently and not just fall on one day before rising on another.

“We will need to see a consistent pattern of numbers coming back under control and falling below key thresholds. We need to be sure we are not seeing a surge of people into hospitals and into critical care beds.

“We want to see the number of new cases stabilise and fall, and we must be convinced that fall is reliable and sustained.

“As the figures give us the reason to do so, we want to lift some of the restrictions people in Caerphilly are having to face at the moment.”  

The number of new cases reported to Public Health Wales for Caerphilly on Thursday, September 10 was 30, taking the county’s seven day rolling average to 96.6 per 100,000 people, 175 cases in total over the last week.

In the week leading up to the decision to enforce a local lockdown in the county, 56 new cases were recorded across seven days.

When restrictions are lifted, new restrictions will apply to Caerphilly in line with the rest of Wales.