A Welsh Government health chief has said it will be up to Gwynedd Council to decide if a hyper local lockdown is needed in Bangor.
Dr Frank Atherton, Chief Medical Officer for Wales, said a rise in Covid-19 cases in Gwynedd was linked to Bangor’s student population and this made the situation “easier to manage” in the county.
Speaking at an online Welsh Government media briefing today, he also opened the door to a possible relaxation of travel curbs in Conwy and elsewhere.
Total number of coronavirus cases in Gwynedd currently stands at around 800, with 21 new cases reported on Tuesday – a higher daily rise than in Anglesey, Conwy and Denbighshire.
But Dr Atherton said much of recent increases in Gwynedd were linked to students at Bangor University.
The situation in the town is under “active watch” and a local Incident Management Team was meeting on daily basis to advise Cardiff on appropriate actions.
This local-based approach was a “more democratic” way of introducing situations, said Dr Atherton.
He added: “Where we have a rising number of cases linked to a specific outbreak, it’s kind of easier to manage that.
“It’s where we have broader community transmission that local lockdown arrangements are more effective and more likely to be put in place.
“So we are working with the local authority. We will wait to see what its request for support from the Welsh Government might be – whether that might be on a Bangor basis or on a broader, local authority basis.”
The Welsh Conservatives are pressing the case for hyper localised lockdowns instead of blanket restrictions across entire local authority areas.
South Wales West MS Suzy Davies said “smart” lockdowns, focusing on specific outbreaks, enabled the wider community to “edge closer to some sort of normality”.
She said a precedent had been set already after Llanelli became the first town in Wales to shut down, not the whole of Carmarthenshire.
Ms Davies wants to see a similar approach in Blaengarw, rather than a county-wide lockdown in Bridgend.
“It’s crucial for the mental wellbeing of many in this county, and no doubt many others across the rest of Wales, that restrictions are in place only where necessary and only where proportionate to the risk,” she said.
The Welsh Government has faced criticism from Conwy Council leader Sam Rowlands, who wants to see travel curbs eased to safeguard the county’s flagging tourism sector.
Whilst supportive of balanced measures, Cllr Rowlands insisted there is no evidence that the movement of people in North Wales was a big contributor to Covid-19 increases.
He said travel restrictions were “completely disproportionate to the reality of the situation”.
Dr Atherton said discussions with local authorities were ongoing and he suggested there might be room for manoeuvre if Conwy Council was able to make a strong enough case.
He said: “What we don’t do in Wales is impose restrictions from Welsh Government on local authority areas.
“We don’t have a position where every local lockdown area needs to be identical.
“So that is a discussion the Welsh Government will have with the local authority about whether it (a travel restriction) is the most appropriate thing to have in place.”
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He said the impact on local businesses, and on the wellbeing of local people, highlighted the difficult decisions that are being taken every day.
In some situations this will result in “difficult trade-offs”.
Dr Atherton added: “We recognise absolutely that there are economic and social consequences to these decisions.
“So we will continue to work with Conwy and other local authorities.”
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