Covid: Wales' top doctor Frank Atherton warns of difficult winter

Wales needs to prepare itself for "quite a difficult winter", the country's top doctor has warned.

Frank Atherton told a press conference that further restrictions could not be ruled out as cases rise.

"We are going to have to learn to live with it," the chief medical officer said.

He also said he hoped "most people in Wales don't take" US president Donald Trump "as their guide to how to deal with coronavirus".

His comments came on the same day that Mr Trump separately retweeted criticism of Dr Atherton's rolling lockdown strategy.

Frank Atherton spoke at a Welsh Government press conference

Cases in Wales had gone from 20-30 cases a day in August to 752 on Tuesday, he said.

"Although all of us would like to see the back of coronavirus, it's going to be with us for some time and we're going to have to learn to live with it to some degree," he said.

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Wales has 15 counties and one town under local lockdowns, with travel restrictions imposed.

"The situation is still very fluid in Wales as it is across the UK and rest of Europe and the world, in fact, and we can't rule out further restrictions."

But he added: "I think we need to prepare ourselves for quite a difficult winter".

"While we wait for and hope for a vaccine to become available we have to really look after ourselves and keep viral transmission low".

Local lockdowns

Dr Atherton emphasised that the government was sticking to the local lockdown arrangements for the time being.

"At the moment, we're looking to the local health protection area arrangements to try to guide us through the current situation," he said.

He said there was "some evidence" for the arrangements working and improvements had been seen in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

This was also the case in Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil, he said, but high rates of transmission and new cases continued there.

In Newport a "decline" had been slowed because of an increase in cases "related to house parties".

"We're working on how we can now remove the restrictions in those areas, so that people can pick up their lives as usual," he said.

He warned of a "rolling programme" of putting restrictions in place and removing them.

But he said there are "no plans" for extra so called "circuit break" restrictions across Wales to coincide with schools' autumn half term.

Bangor is under "active watch", Frank Atherton said

Dr Atherton said Bangor is under "active watch" while Gwynedd is being "considered" for local lockdown, after a rise in cases in the city.

"An incident management team has been meeting on a daily basis up there and they are providing reports and suggestions into Welsh Government", he said.

Vaccine planning

On a vaccine, Dr Atherton said he was "more optimistic... about the prospect of an effective vaccine becoming available then I probably was six months ago".

However he said the timeframe was "really difficult to judge".

Finding a vaccine would not follow a "smooth journey" and even though the UK had placed advance orders, global demand would be "enormous", he said.

Local health boards were planning how to deliver a vaccine if one becomes available, he added.

'Next few days critical'

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said the Welsh Government should look at what was happening in Scotland where Nicola Sturgeon is expected to announce tougher Covid restrictions.

He said: "I think the latest figures from yesterday show more people in critical care in Wales than in Scotland, with more people hospitalised recently with Covid in Wales than in Scotland.

"The next few days is going to be critical because at some point, we may need to pull that emergency cord, as the Scottish Government has already decided to do".