5,000 Powys residents to continue shielding for 10 weeks

Hundreds of residents in the Welshpool area will be among the 5,000 in Powys that will receive a letter from the Chief Medical Officer for Wales setting out the latest advice to protect them from coronavirus.

They will be asked to continue shielding until August 16, but the letter will also describe how the medical advice changed earlier this week to enable them to go outdoors to meet other people for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

It comes as Public Health Wales revealed on Thursday that there have been just three positive cases recorded over the past five days for the whole of Powys.

Nevertheless, the shielded group are people who are classed as extremely vulnerable to developing serious illness if they contract Coronavirus because they have a specific health condition.

They have already been following strict shielding advice for 12 weeks, so the extra 10 weeks will mean five months in total.

Wales’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frank Atherton, explained: “Since the start of the pandemic, we have been focused on ensuring people who are at greatest risk are protected from Coronavirus.

“The spread of Coronavirus is being carefully monitored – if it gets lower, it is possible those within the shielded group will be able to do more. If it gets higher, we may advise those people to stop going outside and to stay at home again.”

Earlier this week, the Welsh Government announced a change in advice for people who are shielding, based on a review of the evidence by the four UK chief medical officers.

From June 1, everyone who is shielding could leave their homes to meet people from another household outdoors, as long as they strictly follow social distancing rules and good hygiene measures. This includes exercising outdoors.

The new August shielding date does not affect this updated advice.

Dr Atherton added: “We are asking all those in the shielding group to continue to shield until August 16 because Coronavirus has not gone away. We want to do all we can to keep those people in this group safe and that means asking them to continue to shield.

“I will continue to work with my chief medical officer colleagues to review the evidence for this group and will write to them again in the summer.”