Drakeford: No plans to ban travel between England and Wales as Covid variant cases rise
There are no plans to ban travel into Wales from Covid hotspots in England, the First Minister has said.
Mark Drakeford has rejected the idea of closing the border, despite England seeing a rise in cases of the Delta variant, which first originated in India.
The variant is believed to have overtaken the Alpha variant, which was previously known as the Kent variant, rising by 5,472 cases since last week to 12,431.
Public Health England figures show that from February 1 to May 31, there were 9,427 cases of the Delta variant recorded in England, of which 5,172 were in unvaccinated people.
Bolton continues to be the most affected area, where cases of the strain have risen by 795 to 2,149.
Moves to ban travel from Covid hotspots like Bolton or Bradford would be too "difficult" and not "the right solution", according to Mr Drakeford.
“Even when our border was closed with England, thousands of people crossed the border every day for reasons that were allowed in the law," he said.
“Secondly, when we were in a position where the whole of England was in a more difficult position than Wales, at least for policing purposes that was relatively straightforward.
“In a practical world, how would a police officer know whether somebody crossing over the border was coming from a hotspot in the north-west of England, or coming into Wales from a part of England where there was no significant problem?
“Just in a practical sense it’s much more difficult to take that action at the moment. For all those reasons we don’t think it’s the right solution.”
Mr Drakeford said he would be reinforcing the UK Government’s own advice to people not to travel in or out of English hotspots.
Speaking about the changes to the travel lists on Thursday, he said he had wanted the UK to wait before putting Portugal on the green list because coronavirus figures showed it was only "marginally" qualified for that status.
Mr Drakeford said: "The figures showed that while Portugal was in a position to be put on the green list, it was only marginally so.
"I would have waited a bit longer to see whether that position was strengthening so that you can be confident that it would be on the green list, or whether because it was so close to the margin things could have moved against it being on the green list.
"Now things have deteriorated in Portugal and I know that will be a very significant challenge now for people who are already on holiday there to face quarantining when they return."
Mr Drakeford will give a coronavirus briefing at 12:15pm today (Friday) to talk through the easing of lockdown restrictions.
From Monday, more people will be allowed to meet informally outdoors and up to three households will be able to join together as a ‘bubble’ under changes to Wales’ Covid restrictions.
But concerns over the Delta variant of the virus means that other restrictions, which it was hoped were to be lifted, will now have to wait for a further two weeks.