WALES is at a “critical juncture” in the easing of lockdown measures, education minister Kirsty Williams has said.

Ms Williams said restrictions would be unlocked at a cautious rate so as not to undo the “tremendous hard work of the Welsh public.”

In Monday’s Public Health Wales figures, 164 new cases were confirmed across Wales, including 32 in Gwent, and the seven day rolling case rate for Wales – up to March 3 – has fallen to 44.6 per 100,000 people.

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“There is data that we can all be massively encouraged by, but those figures have been hard won by the Welsh public,” said Ms Williams. “We need to follow the advice that in unlocking restrictions we do not undo the tremendous hard work of the Welsh public.

“We want to ensure that when we unlock, we can do that on a permanent basis and not find ourselves in a situation where we will see cases rise quickly again and potentially hospital admissions rise quickly again and therefore the need to re impose restrictions.

“All advice to the Welsh Government is clear: any unlocking must be done carefully and it must be done cautiously. That will allow us to monitor the impact of community spread because even with the vaccination programme, if we let the virus spread rapidly within the community, even if that leads to less pressure on our NHS, that potentially leads to the situation where we can see the development of new variants.

“We are at a critical juncture in the management of this pandemic where there is much to be hopeful and optimistic about but could so easily be thrown away by an incautious approach to unlocking.”

Ms Williams was asked about the possibility of moving to a ‘Stay Local’ approach after the next review of restrictions – the result of which will be announced on Friday.

“I think we have to recognise that even within Wales we still see quite significant differences in the amount of community spread,” she said.

“If you look for instance at Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire which have very very low levels as compared to the figures in parts of North Wales, even within Wales there is still some considerable difference in those figures - although overall the news is good.

“Any decision to move from a stay at home message to a stay local message is part of that cautious approach to beginning to unlock measures and doing so in a way where we can monitor the impact of that before moving to the next stage

“All of the decisions that we are making will be guided by the best advice at this time. But the consistent thread of all advice is that a ‘Big Bang’ approach to unlocking measures and having people travel everywhere potentially needs to be factored in and considered, and a cautious approach to unlocking the ability to travel is one I think that is in line with the overall government's approach.

“A cautious and gradual approach I think is when that throughout this pandemic has been valued by the Welsh public.”