Shadow Health Minister calls for caution of quarantine restrictions

The Conservative health spokesperson in the Welsh Parliament, Andrew RT Davies MS, said quarantine restrictions for people travelling to Wales from Covid hotspots in England was a “dangerous slope” for the Welsh Government to go down.

Mr Davies said:

“If you start introducing such quarantine restrictions in Wales, the does that mean there is a quid pro-quo that England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will start doing the same for Welsh residents?

“There are all sorts of questions to be answered before you even entertain implementing such dramatic action.”

Mr Davies was peaking to the BBC after today’s Covid briefing. He used the opportunity to renew Welsh Conservative calls for hyperlocal lockdowns to be imposed in coronavirus hotspots rather than blanket lockdowns.

Mr Davies said that targeted lockdowns can be achieved using the most current data to protect those in the worst-affected areas only, to keep business, education, and other aspects of life operating as close to normal in areas not as affected. Some 80 percent of Wales is back under lockdown.

He said:

“We have to appeal to people to act responsibly and sensibly, not pile restriction upon restriction on them, which will be an attack on our civil liberties.”

Spealing later, Mr Davies added:

“Were I in the Health Minister’s shoes, I’d be looking at using all the available localised data to lockdown only where necessary. This is not happening in Wales, although the data is available.

“The Welsh Labour-led Government needs to release community by community data to enable scrutiny of whole county lockdowns.”