No end in sight for local coronavirus lockdown – but Flintshire council chief hopeful rise in cases is slowing

There’s no end in sight for local coronavirus lockdown measures in Flintshire, according to a senior public official.

However, hopes have been raised that a rise in cases in the county is beginning to slow.

New restrictions were introduced in the area, as well as three others in North Wales, around two weeks ago to control the spread of Covid-19.

It means residents are not able to travel out of the county without a valid reason, such as going to a place of work or education.

Flintshire Council’s chief executive Colin Everett provided an update to councillors on the arrangements this morning (Tuesday 13 October).

He said: “We’ve still got the four county public health zones in North Wales, of which we are one, and we were joined on Saturday by Bangor city.

“Those arrangements are likely to remain in place for some weeks and we can’t give a deadline.

“There is no exit strategy and we’re trying to manage a sustainable restricted set of zones at the moment and the same applies all around Wales.

“You will have seen what’s occurred in Parliament with the Prime Minister’s speech overnight.

“Those arrangements do not apply in Wales.”

A total of 51 new cases were confirmed in Flintshire by Public Health Wales this afternoon – the highest amount of any county in the region.

It puts the latest seven-day figure for cases per 100,000 people in the area at 168.5.

But Mr Everett told member’s of the local authority’s environment and economy scrutiny committee there were signs that the increase in infections could be slowing.

He said: “Our figures are likely to show that they’re very similar to yesterday.

“I’m hopeful we are reaching a peak at this stage, but this is subject to variation and people’s behaviour.

“The leap from Tuesday to Friday last week was an increase in our incidence rate by 50 – the incidence rate being the number of cases per 100,000.

“The change from Saturday to today is under ten so you can see the incidence rate is creeping up but is also slowing.

“It’s a positive but the message to everybody is that absolute compliance with all the rules needs to remain in place.”

Liam Randall – Local Democracy Reporter (more here).