Coronavirus: No Wrexham lockdown as case spike watched 'very carefully'

A spike in coronavirus cases is being monitored "very carefully" but a local lockdown is not yet being considered, Wales' chief medical officer has said.

Frank Atherton said transmission in Wrexham appeared to be stable and any lockdown would be a "last step".

Wrexham Maelor Hospital is now dealing with 63 cases.

The majority of those confirmed over the past few days have been caught in the community, according to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Three new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Wrexham on Thursday by Public Health Wales (PHW), representing a third of the nine cases reported across Wales in the last 24 hours.

Both deaths reported on Thursday were in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area, which includes Wrexham.

Dr Atherton told BBC Wales ministers had met Public Health Wales officials on Thursday, along with members of the health board.

He said transmission in the community "appears to be stable" but a "very close watch" was being kept on it.

Extra measures were in place so those most likely to be affected could be tested.

Dr Atherton said: "[Wrexham Maelor] hospital is taking a lot of steps, of course, to increase testing of patients coming through the system to make sure that social distancing is possible in the hospital.

"So they're doing all the right things and the trend is in the right direction."

Some opposition parties have called for face masks to be made mandatory there.

Dr Atherton maintained the Welsh Government had always tried to follow World Health Organization guidelines on masks.

He said: "That says that where there is extensive community transmission, and where people cannot socially distance, that face coverings may have a part to play, but only as one small part of a broader package of interventions which really rely on people, maintaining that social distancing.

"So the most important thing is social distancing."

Huw Roberts, 71, from Mold, Flintshire, is at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

His wife Susan said he "went berserk" after seeing a patient covered by plastic sheeting and hearing staff say patients on his ward had Covid-19.

She said on Monday her husband saw staff coming into the ward where he was being treated "with visors and PPE and seeing to two or three gentlemen who seemed poorly".

She added: "Huw and another patient overheard nursing staff saying they were Covid-positive.

"His blood pressure went up. He wanted out of there," she said.

He has now been moved to another ward.

Mrs Roberts said her husband was regularly being tested for coronavirus but so far his tests have come back negative.

The health board said it was unable to comment on individual cases.

But Gill Harris, its executive director of nursing and midwifery, said: "Patients who are identified as Covid-19 positive are transferred to our Covid-19 positive wards.

"We have found more positive patients as we have increased testing across the site.

"This has resulted in us finding patients who have been exposed to the virus but were not symptomatic.

"These patients are now managed separately until we can confirm infection status."

She said patients who tested negative remained on the ward and were monitored by being tested every five days, as directed by Public Health Wales.

There have been 54 cases in the last week in Wrexham - 40% of all positive tests in Wales.

The case rate of 39.7 per 100,000 people is one of only two Welsh local council areas which has a rise in double figures, according to PHW.

Apart from Oldham - which has imposed local lockdown measures - Wrexham has also seen one of the biggest increases across local council areas across Wales and England.

About 400 people in Wrexham were tested for Covid-19 on the first day of two mobile testing centres operating on Wednesday.

Chris Johnson, Public Health Wales' health protection consultant and chairman of the outbreak control team, urged people to get tested.

"The more people with symptoms who come forward, the more cases we will find," he said.

"More people can then be referred into the test, trace, protect programme."

He said though the mobile test results were not yet back "we are reassured that there is no evidence of a rapidly escalating situation".