Llanelli becomes first town to go into localised lockdown

Richard Morgan reports from Llanelli

Llanelli has now become the first town in Wales to go into a localised lockdown.

Llanelli in Carmarthenshire went into local lockdown on Saturday at 6pm making it the first place not subject to a whole county borough lockdown.

It comes after 85 positive cases were identified in the last seven days. This equates to 151.6 cases per 100,000 of the population compared to 24 cases in the rest of Carmarthenshire, or 18.1 per 100,000 of the population.

Cardiff and Swansea will also go into lockdown on 6pm on Sunday in an effort to tackle the rise in coronavirus cases in Wales.

Wales' Health Minister, Vaughan Gething, told BBC Breakfast that the spread of Covid-19 was not just in younger adults but was now being seen in older people in their 40s and 50s.

He said that hospital admissions were already rising in Wales and the new restrictions were intended to stop "much more significant harm taking place".

He warned that if there was no improvement the Welsh Government will need to consider further restrictions.

"We are doing this because we have to try to avoid much more significant harm and if we can't see a turnaround in the collective discipline that saw us out of lockdown through the summer then we are going to have to consider taking further measures."

Under the new restrictions, residents living in defined parts of Llanelli will not be able to visit anyone else’s home, or accept visitors into their home, unless they have a ‘reasonable excuse’ such as providing care for a vulnerable person.

People should not leave the area or travel into the area unless there is a reasonable excuse, such as for work.

The specific wards covered in the lockdown are.

  • Bigyn

  • Bynea

  • Dafen

  • Elli

  • Felinfoel

  • Glanymor

  • Hendy

  • Hengoed

  • Llangennech

  • Lliedi

  • Llwynhendy

  • Tyisha

  • Swiss Valley

Residents can check if they live in one of the restricted areas by visiting the council website and searching their post code.

People living in Caerphilly, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend, Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil and Newport are already in lockdown, which means roughly half the population, or 1.5 million people will be in lockdown in Wales after the weekend.The number of cases in Neath Port Talbot and the Vale of Glamorgan are also being monitored. The leaders of the two Welsh councils have urged people in their areas to take "immediate action" to try and prevent the further spread of coronavirus and avert local lockdown.