Businesses will be encouraged to resume homeworking in Wales as the country’s high Covid infection rates persist.
Wales has the highest Covid rate of any of the UK nations – 686 per 100,000 people over seven days to last Saturday, compared with 481, 324 and 467 for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively – leading its cabinet to meet on Thursday to finalise more stringent rules. These include advice to work at home where possible and the use of a Covid pass in theatres, concert halls and cinemas.
Businesses are likely to be asked to look at their risk assessments and review social distancing guidelines in the workplace, while self-isolation guidance for people who are fully vaccinated will also change. Currently they are not required to isolate, but the government will now ask people to do so if someone in their household has symptoms or tests positive, until they get a negative PCR test.
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First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “Over the past three weeks, coronavirus cases have risen sharply to the highest rates we have seen since the pandemic began and more people are falling so seriously ill that they need hospital treatment.
“We need to take more action now to strengthen the measures we have in place at alert level zero to prevent coronavirus spreading even further and more people falling seriously ill.
He said that if the tightening of rules did not work in the coming weeks, something akin to lockdown would be required to turn back the Covid tide. “We hope this action will help to turn the tide of this delta. None of us wants to see a return to restrictions but if rates continue to rise, the cabinet will have no choice but to consider raising the alert level at the next review,” he added.
Drakeford told BBC Radio Wales on Friday: “When you have that many people unable to be in work because they are suffering from the virus, they’re not in work, they’re not in school, people are not able to go about their everyday lives.”
The hospitality industry needed to “use the next three weeks to prepare for the possibility that Covid passes may have to be introduced in that setting”, he warned.
Raising the alert level at the next review would see tougher restrictions return he said. There were no plans to shut schools though, the First Minister confirmed.
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