'The success of the vaccination programme means hospital admissions remain low'

MS for Wrexham

Readers will be aware Wales has now fully moved to alert level 1.

The changes, announced by Wales’ First Minister, Mark Drakeford last week, came into force on Saturday after initially being paused for four weeks due to the emergence of the delta variant. Despite cases of coronavirus rising in the community largely as a result of the delta variant, the success of the vaccination programme means hospital admissions remain low. It means from Saturday there has been no limit on the amount of people who can gather outdoors and six people can now meet up indoors in private homes.

Looking further ahead, if conditions remain favourable, most Covid rules – but not all – will be lifted from 7 August as Wales would move to alert level 0. This would mean there would be no legal limit on the number of people who can meet indoors and social distancing would be scrapped and replaced with Covid risk assessments. However, people will be expected to continue to work from home wherever possible and face coverings will remain a legal requirement in most indoor public places and on public transport, with the initial exceptions of hospitality and education settings.

The pandemic is not over but there is reason to be confident the vaccination has weakened the link between infections and serious illness. Throughout this pandemic, the Welsh Government has adopted a cautious approach and I hope maintaining certain restrictions over the upcoming weeks, such as the requirement to wear face coverings in certain places, will provide people in Wrexham with greater reassurance. How quickly we return to complete normality will be determined by how quickly people get vaccinated. It’s crucial everyone receives the double dose of the vaccine as this is the best way to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

People under 40 in particular are being urged to come forward and anyone in Wrexham can book their appointments at a convenient date, time and location via Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s online booking system.

The vaccination clinic at Glyndwr University’s Catrin Finch Centre is accepting walk ins without an appointment at certain times and pop-up centres will be present in areas of high footfall over the coming weeks – a mobile clinic will be on the Wrexham Industrial Estate on Saturday 24 July (10am – 4pm). All the details can be found online but if constituents are seeking clarification on any points raised in my article, please get in touch.