National lockdown will not be extended like in Caerphilly

The first minister announced plans on Friday to introduce a “short, sharp” lockdown for a period of two to three weeks, although would not be drawn on the details of such a decision.

Mr Drakeford said this would be a fixed-period set of restrictions, however, he was asked what was to stop a repeat of the situation in Caerphilly, where local restrictions – thought to only be in place for a matter of weeks when they were introduced on September 8 – are still in place.

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“We are not returning to where we were in March of this year, because in March we had an open-ended lockdown, a lockdown which nobody knew when it would end,” he said.

“We are considering a fixed period of a circuit breaker, and that I think is something very different.

“When we instituted those restrictions in Caerphilly and elsewhere, we hoped at the time that it would be sufficient to bring the level of coronavirus back down below 50 per 100,000 population.

“For many weeks in Caerphilly we saw a steady reduction, and we got to the 50 mark and we got below the 50 mark. The problem is we haven’t been able to sustain it below 50 and drive it even further down.

“If we have a circuit breaker, it will be for a defined period of time. After that defined period of time, a different set of rules will be necessary.

“It will not be prolonged indefinitely in the way that the regime earlier in the year had to be prolonged because that wouldn’t be a circuit breaker – that isn’t what Sage is recommending; it’s not what our own technical advisory group is saying to us.”

Mr Drakeford hit back when asked if a national lockdown was a “last ditch” measure against the virus, and if that meant everything done since the first lockdown had not worked.

“If we had not taken the action we have taken, if people had not made the contribution they have made in all parts of Wales, we would be in a far, far worse position today than the one we are actually facing.

“In fact, it is because we acted early and decisively in different parts of Wales, that we are today in a better position than any other part of the United Kingdom.

“It has worked, but it has not worked enough.”