Health minister warns Wales won't rush to reopen, despite falling Covid rates
Wales' health minister has warned there cannot be a "huge splurge of reopening" in Wales despite coronavirus rates falling significantly from pre-Christmas levels.
Vaughan Gething said that although Covid rates have improved, they remain 'high' and the health service is still under a lot of pressure.
Mr Gething told Times Radio that the first priority for the Welsh Government is to begin a phased return to face-to-face teaching, starting with primary schools.
"We're hopeful that we'll be able to start that after half-term, so from the week beginning February 22, and we think we're going to be able to focus that on our youngest children in primary schools initially," he said.
"That's because we do have limited headroom. So, despite all the good news about our case rates falling, they're still just under 125 which is actually still quite high.
"We had eye-watering levels before Christmas at nearly 700 cases per 100,000. So really good progress but still high and our NHS is still very pressured.
"Critical care today is operating at 130% of its normal capacity. So we can't have a huge splurge of reopening because we really do think that would lead to a significant bounce-back in cases and potentially overwhelm our service."
The health minister also said more than 60% of the first four priority groups in Wales have now received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination.
More than 400 sites across Wales are now delivering vaccines, with the number of mass vaccination centres in the country expected to increase to 40.
Mr Gething said: "That's happened because we work so closely between the health service and local government, and with the assistance of military planners too, so it's been a real team Wales effort."
There had been a further 35 coronavirus deaths and 544 new confirmed cases, Public Health Wales data published on Thursday revealed.
Figures also showed that 490,570 people in Wales had received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while 1,216 had received a second dose.
In terms of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's (JCVI) top priority group, the over-80s, 81.3% of people had been given their first vaccine dose.
Wales has been ramping up its vaccine rollout following criticism that it was following a "go-slow" strategy, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying in January there was "no point" in rushing to administer all the available jabs if it meant vaccinators were "standing around with nothing to do".
His comments came at a time when Wales had vaccinated fewer people in proportion to its population than the other home nations.
But on Wednesday Mr Gething said Wales had led the way for vaccinations over the past week, with figures showing that, in the seven days to February 1, Wales vaccinated the equivalent of 4.8% of its population, while in England the figure was 4.3%, Northern Ireland 3.7% and Scotland 3.2%.
On Wednesday, Wales was behind only England in terms of the total share of its population that have been vaccinated, with 14.7% of people given a first dose.
The Welsh Government also announced on Thursday that £3m has been allocated for an enhanced testing regime for care home staff.
It means asymptomatic care home staff will be tested twice a week using rapid lateral flow tests, which produce a result in around thirty minutes.
Local health protection teams will also be able to consider the introduction of daily testing for a period of ten days in care homes in the event of an outbreak.
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