Governments in London and Cardiff will be reviewing lockdown measures this week as they are legally obliged to do every three weeks. Speaking in advance of any regulation changes, the MS for Ceredigion has urged a cautionary approach for Ceredigion and all areas.
Elin Jones MS said:
“Lockdown measures have protected Ceredigion and west Wales from the spread of the virus. Infection rates are low in this area and we need to keep it this way.
“However, we cannot allow decisions that may be based on the number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in London to dictate lockdown measures in Ceredigion.
“A one-size-fits-all policy may no longer be appropriate for the whole of the UK, or even the whole of Wales.
“People need to have the confidence that moving out of full lockdown will be done over time and that we will move from one step to the next only when conditions are in place to limit the resurrection and the spread of the virus.
“I want to see significantly enhanced community testing locally in Ceredigion and a contact tracing system fully operational before we move from full lockdown.
“I know that Ceredigion County Council has developed and been testing a contact tracing method and they are leading the way on this in Wales.
“Local control measures may well be the best way to deal with coronavirus in the future if UK decisions do not adequately reflect the reality of Ceredigion. Such an approach is working in other local areas in the world e.g. Groningen area in the Netherlands.
“We will move from lockdown, our communities and economy need this to happen. But we need to have confidence that we are doing so in the right way and at the right time. How we do it, and at what pace and with what control measures in place, will dictate how successful we are in stopping the spread of this virus in Ceredigion into the future.”