Coronavirus: Rhondda Cynon Taf to go into local lockdown amid rise in cases
A cluster of cases has been traced back to an apparent day trip, which was said to have stopped at a series of pubs.
Wednesday 16 September 2020 23:32, UK
Local lockdown measures are to be imposed in the Welsh county of Rhondda Cynon Taf after a rise in coronavirus cases.
The new restrictions will come into effect at 6pm on Thursday, 17 September, Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething confirmed.
They are being brought in after two key clusters of cases were identified at "a rugby club and pub in the lower Rhondda" and "a club outing to the Doncaster races, which stopped off at a series of pubs on the way".
People will not be allowed to enter or leave the area "without a reasonable excuse". Households will no longer be able to meet each other indoors or form an extended household, health bosses said.
Restaurants, pubs, cafes and all other hospitality premises will have to close at 11pm.
Doncaster Racecourse said it had been required to implement a full track and trace database that took the details of all attendees as a condition of running last week's pilot event.
It said in a statement: "Doncaster Racecourse has received no contact from any organisation, including the NHS or the Welsh government, to verify the attendance of any individuals at last week's event for the purposes of track and trace.
"In addition, we do not have any ticket bookings for any groups from the South Wales area for Wednesday's event. We will be contacting the Welsh health minister as a matter of urgency to clarify the situation."
The Welsh Government later said that although the group intended to go to the races, "the party did not enter the racecourse as originally planned".
Rhondda Cynon Taf is the second area of Wales to face tighter coronavirus rules after Caerphilly went into local lockdown a week ago.
Figures show the seven-day infection rate for RCT is 82.1 per 100,000 people, with a positivity rate of 4.3% - the highest in Wales.
However, in the seven days to 13 September, RCT showed a case rate per 100,000 people of 97, with only Caerphilly higher than that, at 118.2.
Elsewhere across Wales in the same time period, Newport's rate was 65.9 and Merthyr Tydfil's was 56.4, while the infection rate in Swansea was 12.1 and Monmouthshire's was only 4.2, showing the varying infection levels across the country.
The Welsh health minister blamed the spike in COVID-19 cases on people mixing, saying: "We have seen a rapid rise in cases in Rhondda Cynon Taf in a very short space of time, linked to people socialising indoors and not following social distancing guidelines.
"We now have evidence of wider community transmission in the borough, which means we need to take urgent action to control and, ultimately, reduce the spread of the virus and protect people's health.
"We need the help of everyone across Wales to prevent the increasing and onward spread of coronavirus. We can bring coronavirus under control if everyone pulls together and follows the rules we have put in place.
"Coronavirus has not gone away. It is still circulating in communities across Wales. It's vital people stick to the rules."
Earlier today, Labour MP for Rhondda Chris Bryant told Kay Burley of the challenges his area faces.
:: Subscribe to the Daily podcast on , , ,
He told Sky News: "The single biggest issue facing my constituency is the testing fiasco.
"The Rhondda is one of the poorest communities in Europe, it's very resilient, but we've had terrible flooding this year.
"To add to that, we still haven't had a penny from the Westminster government to deal with the flooding. We've got £130m of broken bridges and a coal tip that fell down into the river. We haven't had a penny to make that safe.
"I really worry that at the end of this, the gap between rich and poor in this country will be even wider.
"I really fear the government is at risk of losing control of the virus and that could mean many thousands of people losing their lives."
As a result of the new restrictions in RCT, all community rugby has been suspended in the area, saying attending training is not a valid reason to travel into the region - but the professional game is exempt.