If there’s one lesson the pandemic has taught us, it’s that things can change. We saw after the firebreak in the Autumn just how quickly the virus got out of hand again.
Nobody can predict the future. In the end decision making is about acting on the best information you have at the time, not in hindsight. That’s why Wales’ roadmap out of lockdown, like last summers, will be cautious and done in stages, when the science tells us it is safe to do so.
At the most recent review, we used what headroom we had to reopen schools for the youngest pupils. Next time, on 12th March, we hope to go further, possibly opening non-essential retail. By Easter, we have set a target date of getting self-contained accommodation open to help tourism businesses at such an important time of the year.
Some may argue our plan lacks ambition, and that we should go the whole hog, announcing a raft of dates well into the summer months for opening up. But we have been here before, with almost robotic repetition – “It will all be over by (Insert relevant festive/bank holiday)”.
The truth is, nobody knows where we will become the summer. Although the vaccination programme is making sterling progress, it still has some way to run to ensure our NHS can withstand what we might call ‘normal’ again. Just under half of hospital admissions with covid are people aged under 65 – contrary to what some believe is a virus that only affects the elderly.
That’s why we will stick to our approach – cautious, managed and realistic. I sincerely hope things change and change with haste. We will let our vaccine programme do the talking when the full effect of second doses becomes clear in the weeks ahead, and we will always follow the science to help keep Wales safe.
You can read more about the plan, and the science that guides our decisions here – https://gov.wales/strategy-evidence-coronavirus
