Wales hopes to end lockdown

[Woowooah]

I’ve just seen on the News that Wales hopes to end lockdown after the current 3 weeks are up with some kind of traffic light system.

I wonder if this will be the case across the U.K? And when we will find out what each traffic light involves?

I.e. in Red will we be allowed back to work and school?

Wales is so tightly tied in with England in terms of legislation and public health policy that they will not do anything different

They have stated that they will do things differently if there is a need to, and already have some differences like only being able to exercise once a day.

I don’t think it’s clear what the first step of relaxing would mean though.

No it doesn’t say that I don’t think. Wales are bringing in tighter restrictions from tomorrow meaning that people can’t drive to exercise etc and forbidding second home owners from staying in their second property.

The red phase of lifting restrictions sounds very much like where England already are and also the WAG have said that we can’t move to that phase unless numbers of cases have been falling for 14 consecutive days.

I didn’t take that from the press conference today.

I bloody hope not.

Wales will do what England does and will use the same systems etc for contact and trace.

nation.cymru/news/welsh-government-to-bring-in-tighter-lockdown-rules-from-saturday/

The majority of Wales is rural. They can safely say only one walk a day and know there will be no backlash, as people know they can go out 20 times and noone will see them.

I dont think he said that either.

I live in Cardiff. Wish I was rural.

65% of the welsh population is urban, according to this www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/documents/888/Part1%20WCH%20Rural%20Profile%20E.pdf

Where were you getting the rural info from @TabbyMumz

You only have to look at google maps or drive through Wales to see most of it is fields for goodness sake. 65% urban my ar*e.

65% of the population. Not of the land!

Have you ever been to Wales? Most people in Wales could go for a walk 10 times a day and wouldnt see anyone.

Have you ever been to Wales? Most people in Wales could go for a walk 10 times a day and wouldnt see anyone.

There's a lot of different parts to Wales though, personally I'd go with with the actual statistics rather than "I've driven through Wales and it was mostly fields"

Anyway, my understanding is that Wales are trying to tighten restrictions now because people, from cities in England, who think it's all fields are escaping there which is putting pressure on their health system.
The tightened lockdown is supposed to temporarily discourage people from going there. Then they'll aim to lift that by the middle of May.

It's interesting that people have taken 2 completely different things from the welsh press conference - there's one thread about how Wales are going to tighten restrictions and then this one about lifting lockdown.

They're only talking about possible lifting of lockdown if hospital admissions continue to fall for 2 weeks so it's far from definite.

And also chuckling at the 'never mind the statistics I've driven through Wales and it was all fields'.

"There's a lot of different parts to Wales though, personally I'd go with with the actual statistics rather than "I've driven through Wales and it was mostly fields""

You've never been to Wales, have you?! Pop over to the other thread on Wales at the moment...people are talking how remote it is. (Apart from Cardiff of course).

People are going to Wales because they know it's mainly fields, not because they think it's all fields. That's why lots of people have second homes there, because it's beautiful and remote....think that through for a minute before you read your stats and go of thinking it's all urban!!!!!

"And also chuckling at the 'never mind the statistics I've driven through Wales and it was all fields'."
I didnt say I've driven through Wales I said "you only have to drive through Wales...."

"putting pressure on their health system."
Does that not give you some idea that the health system is only geared up for smaller numbers?

Same thing though? You can't make a sweeping statement about Wales based on driving through it.

I live there. In a city. A city that isn't Cardiff.

Most of Wales is upland or fields because 65% of the population live in urban areas. But in terms of going for a walk - most people (65%) are not rural.

The link posted states that 1 in 3 people in Wales live rurally compared to 1 in 5 people in England. So more people in Wales live rurally than in England certainly but it's not correct to say 'most people can go for a walk 10 times a day and not see anybody'

I have been to Wales, I actually live quite close to the North Wales border and I do understand where you're coming from in that lots of it appears to be fields, farms and beautiful "scenery"
What I haven't done, however, is visited every part of Wales and conducted a detailed study of the population. I leave that to the experts.
Does this picture help at all? From the official Gov.wales statistics?

Wales has a disproportionate number of elderly, sick and obese people, and their NHS can struggle to cope in normal times, let alone a pandemic. I think they’d be ill advised to ease lockdown (unless selectively in very rural areas) unless they were prepared to tighten up again quickly if numbers rose.