First minister Mark Drakeford has said he is giving Boris Johnson “one final opportunity to do the right thing” and put in place measures to prevent travel from England’s COVID hotspots into Wales.

The Welsh government says there is now evidence that travel to and from areas of England with high rates of coronavirus has contributed to the spread of the virus to other areas of the UK.

Yesterday, Mr Drakeford attended a Cobra meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to discuss the proposed introduction of a tiered system of local restrictions in England.

Afterwards, a spokeswoman for the First Minister said Mr Drakeford expressed “deep disappointment” with Mr Johnson’s refusal to back his calls to ban people from English virus hotspots from making non-essential journeys into Wales.

The spokeswoman said: “The First Minister expressed deep disappointment at the inadequate proposals for travel restrictions in high-infection areas in England, and said these would be met with great dismay in many parts of Wales where infection rates are lower.”

At the Welsh government’s Covid-19 press briefing in Cardiff, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said Mr Johnson had “chosen not to act” on the issue of travel restrictions.

“Myself and the First Minister are meeting again later today but we’re both really disappointed that the Prime Minister is still taking an approach where there is only going to be guidance on whether people should or shouldn’t travel out of highly infected areas,” Mr Gething said.

“This isn’t just an issue for Wales, it’s an issue for the whole UK – lower prevalence areas in England will be equally as affected as lower prevalence areas in Wales.”
Mr Gething said there is now evidence of “importation of coronavirus cases from contact with some of those high prevalence areas in England”.

“We do know that travel in and outside of those areas has been a factor in the spread of coronavirus to other parts of the UK, including some examples here in Wales,” he added.

Mr Gething said the Welsh government does have “public health powers” to impose its own restrictions on travel into Wales, which he previously suggested could include placing people from UK Covid hotspots into quarantine.

Plaid Cymru Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts says it is unfair that travel areas of high transmission in England are not subject to legal travel restrictions, unlike measures in place within Wales.

The Prime Minister announced a new three-tier system of local restrictions in England yesterday, listed as medium, high, and very high. Plaid Cymru had long called for the measures to include travel restrictions in law to restrict travel from high infection areas in England.

Questioning the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, Liz Saville Roberts MP said: “People from Conwy, with 122 cases per 100,000, are not permitted by Welsh law to make non-essential journeys into Meirionnydd next door, where cases stand at 18 per 100,000.

“Yet people in Liverpool, with 600 cases per 100,000 can still go on holiday in Gwynedd and Ynys Môn.

“People in Wales are asking the Prime Minister: how is this fair?’

In his response, the Prime Minister said that ‘guidance was clear’ that people should not travel from very high-risk areas.

Speaking after the session in the House of Commons, Liz Saville Roberts MP said: “It now seems people will be asked nicely by the Prime Minister not to go on holiday from areas of high infection, but this does not go far enough and is clearly unfair to people subject to restrictions within Wales.

“People are rightly concerned that there is growing evidence that outbreaks in Wales are linked to the unrestricted movement of people from high transmission areas of England.

“The First Minister Mark Drakeford must now stop dithering on this matter and immediately use his powers to control the spread of the virus into Wales.”