Coronavirus: 98% of positive Cardiff cases followed up

Cardiff city centre at the end of July as people enjoyed socialising and going shopping

Contact tracers have followed up on 98% of Covid-19 cases in Cardiff over the past six weeks, according to a health board's director of public health.

Fiona Kinghorn, from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said cases had been rising in the capital, with 17.7 cases per 100,000 people.

Most cases in the city and surrounding areas, she said, were linked to people socialising and going to work.

Ms Kinghorn urged people to self-isolate properly if contacted.

Speaking after cases were confirmed on the TUI flight from the Greek Island to Cardiff Airport, Ms Kinghorn said there were concerns people could go back home and spread Covid-19 unknowingly to other family members.

"People on flights that have come from where prevalence is rising and they haven't followed measures like social distancing, they can go back to their families and they can spread it, and before you know it you've got several more cases," she added.

Ms Kinghorn said most of the cases were linked to socialising and people going to work

"Those type of events add to the numbers and add to the rate, they create lots of work for everybody concerned.

"We want to maintain a vibrant economy and we want people to live as normally as possible in this Covid-19 world, but that will only happen if people work with us and follow the rules."

• Travellers from Zante to Wales told to self-isolate

• Track and trace a 'mammoth task' in Wales

However, she said all known outbreaks in the Cardiff and Vale health board area were currently being managed.

She said 90% of contact tracing was done within 24 hours, while 98% had been followed up.

But the woman in charge of the operation for Cardiff and the Vale said it was vital people self-isolated if they are known to have been in contact with someone who had contracted Covid-19.

Rachel Bishop, operational manager of the system, said: "It's about getting that message across. We really mean self-isolate.

"That doesn't mean, 'I'm just a contact, I haven't tested positive, which means I can still play football or have my mate over'.

"It absolutely means, self-isolate, in some circumstances that means in your bedroom in a family household, and in the main most people are taking responsibility."

Ms Bishop said while the system was able to contact people "pretty quickly", they would "try again and again and again" if people did not pick up.