Coronavirus: How Wales is coping with life in a lockdown

Birds and traffic are competing for who can be the loudest in Cardiff.

The main arteries of the city, so used to cars, vans and buses are almost empty.

In this fight, nature, in particular seagulls, are winning.

Closed shop in Cardiff Credit: ITV Wales

Life is on hold in the Welsh capital.

No weddings at City Hall.

No new trials in the Crown Court.

Cardiff Castle is closed to tourists - and so are the hotels.

The cafes and sandwich shops so familiar to hungry workers at lunchtime haven't opened for days. Everyone is working from home.

The only people you see are essential workers and those visiting food shops. Many wearing a face mask hoping not to catch Covid-19.

Pontypridd is still reeling after huge floods last month Credit: ITV Wales

It's a big problem for Cardiff, but a bigger one for Pontypridd.

Only last month much of the town centre was under water, flooded by the River Taff during Storm Dennis.

Businesses had started to get back on their feet. The coronavirus has knocked them back down.

Erdal, who owns Cafe Fresco, is known to everyone as Eddie.

The floods cost him tens of thousands of pounds. The lockdown will cost him much more, but he understands why it is so essential to try and protect lives.

Cafe owner Erdal Kaya promised his staff he would keep their jobs safe Credit: ITV Wales

As a TV reporter, I'm used to going up to people and asking them questions.

It's not so easy now.

The Government has deemed journalists and broadcasters as key workers but we want to ensure we're keeping everyone as safe as we can.

All interviews are risk assessed and we ensure we stay at least two metres away - even the reporter and camera operator travel separately.

It's why you're now seeing a lot of huge microphone poles and interviews at a distance.

This unnatural way of working is the new normal.

The microphone pole ensures both interviewee and interviewer are kept apart Credit: ITV Wales

While sitting on a bench I meet Heath. He's waiting for a bus.

He lost a leg after a rugby accident. He has diabetes, a heart monitor and high blood pressure.

I asked him why he was out, shouldn't he be inside?

He told me he couldn't because he was running out of food and nobody else could shop for him.

There will be plenty of others like him.

Heath Williams says he would rather be at home than shopping for food Credit: ITV Wales

The last stop is Treorchy at the top of the Rhondda.

In January, it won the gold award for UK High Street of the Year.

Now, that high street is empty.

Only the Government approved shops allowed to trade.

A child's rainbow in the window of a home in Treorchy Credit: ITV Wales

I notice a child's drawing of a rainbow in a house window.

I knock the door to be told by a proud father that the school had asked the children to make them to give everyone a message of hope in these dark times.

In all the gloom it's a colourful reminder that after the storm, bright skies will return.