Lockdown for three more areas in South Wales after surge in coronavirus cases

Three more local authorities in South Wales will go into local lockdown from 6pm on Monday, a day after large swathes of the area are hit by new restrictions, the country's government has announced.

Neath Port Talbot, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan will be covered by the coronavirus restrictions, which mean people will not be able to enter or leave the areas without a reasonable excuse.

They will not be able to meet indoors with anyone they do not live with.

The announcement came just hours before local lockdown restrictions come into force in Cardiff and Swansea, Wales’ two biggest cities, on Sunday evening.

Llanelli in Carmarthenshire is also under restrictions, which came in on Saturday at 6pm.

Coronavirus restrictions were already in place in Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “Following a worrying rise in cases of coronavirus across South Wales, we took action on Friday to introduce local coronavirus restrictions in Llanelli and local restrictions will come into force in our two largest cities – Cardiff and Swansea – tonight.

“We are now taking further action and placing three more areas under local restrictions in South Wales – Neath Port Talbot, Torfaen, and the Vale of Glamorgan – because we are seeing rising rates in these three areas.

“Introducing restrictions in any parts of Wales is always an incredibly difficult decision for us to make.

“But we’re acting to protect people’s health and to try and break the chain of transmission and stop the situation from getting worse.”

The decision means more than 1.8 million people – around 60 per cent of the Welsh population – will be covered by local restrictions.

On Saturday, there were a further 370 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Wales, bringing the total in the country to 22,584.

Public Health Wales said three further deaths had been reported, with the total since the beginning of the pandemic increasing to 1,612.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething told BBC Breakfast on Saturday that the situation was “real and very serious”, with coronavirus transmission driven by households mixing indoors and in pubs.

He said that there had also been some imported coronavirus transmission, mainly from European holidays.

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

He added: “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.”

With additional reporting by PA

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