As you might expect, yesterday’s announcement of a two-week “firebreak” national lockdown was the main topic of discussion. There’s a formal debate set for later this afternoon – more on that tomorrow.
Did money determine how long the “firebreak” lockdown would last?
Adam Price MS (Plaid, Carms. E. & Dinefwr) – who supports the “firebreak” – cited scientific advice given to the Welsh Government which states that a two-week lockdown could eventually save 1,000 lives by the end of 2020, while a three-week lockdown would save an extra 300 lives on top of that.
It was “incomprehensible and reprehensible” that the UK Chancellor has refused to bring the job support scheme forward: “It’s difficult to believe that the purse strings would be shut quite so tight if there were a circuit breaker in Surrey.” Was funding a factor in deciding how long the mini lockdown would last?
The First Minister’s answer suggested “no”; decisions are made on public health grounds. However, it was difficult to see why the Chancellor turned that down given that the Welsh Government were willing to cover any additional costs involved:
“Llywydd, it cannot be that it was financial reasons that prevented (UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak) from agreeing to that because we agreed….to pay the additional £11 million it would’ve cost the UK Treasury from our own resources if that was the sticking point. So, it can’t have been turned down on cost grounds, and it is difficult to see why the Chancellor didn’t feel that he was able to play his part.”
– First Minister, Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West)
People will be “frustrated that their freedoms will be curtailed again”
Leader of the Opposition, Paul Davies MS (Con, Preseli Pembs.) took a different line. The firebreak lockdown was wrong. People across Wales would be frustrated and angry that their freedoms were being curtailed again. He also repeated calls for community-level data to be made available*.
“Whilst I’m open-minded about further restrictions….the data that is available to us simply doesn’t justify a national lockdown, and I think the Welsh Government’s national lockdown will disproportionately harm communities and businesses where cases are already low, such as the whole of mid and west Wales. First Minister, according to Public Health Wales’s latest data, in 20 of the 22 local authority areas, cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 have gone down from week 41 to week 42. How can you justify a national lockdown when figures in all but two areas are actually coming down?”
– Leader of the Opposition, Paul Davies MS
The First Minister said while the public’s efforts to lower the number of cases were succeeding, it wasn’t happening fast enough. According to the Welsh Government’s scientific advice, cases and hospital admissions would continue to rise and there could potentially be an additional 6,000 deaths over the winter.
A “firebreak” now – if successful – would create the necessary conditions for businesses to continue trading in the run-up to Christmas, instead of undermining them through loss of staff or customers to illness or loss of consumer confidence because of an inability to control Covid-19 cases.
* Coincidentally, Public Health Wales has started publishing a map showing more localised data (though not down to council ward level) at their statistics page. Click on the “Cases by MSOA” tab.
