Coronavirus: Care home visits stopped in Caerphilly county

Visits to care homes in Caerphilly are to be stopped to protect residents from a rise in Covid-19 cases in the county.

The council said visits would cease with immediate effect.

Earlier, a Public Health Wales official warned house parties and people failing to social distance has led to a worrying rise in cases.

In Caerphilly, 56 cases have been reported by Public Health Wales (PHW) over the past week, the highest number in Wales.

Residents are being warned other coronavirus restrictions may return if the number of confirmed cases continue to rise across the area.

The council said the "difficult" but "prudent" decision to stop care home visits was "not taken lightly".

Councillor Carl Cuss, cabinet member for social services, said: "We must put the health and wellbeing of our elderly and vulnerable residents first and I'm sure families will understand the pressing need to take this action.

"I fully appreciate that care home residents and their families will be very disappointed with this decision, but I would like to assure all concerned that the decision was taken in the best interest of protecting their health."

The council said there would also be a temporary return to weekly testing at each care setting.

Earlier on Friday, PHW's incident director for the virus Dr Robin Howe told Gareth Lewis on BBC Radio Wales the rise in the county should be a "warning for the rest of Wales".

He said: "We've seen this uptick in cases getting to quite a worrying level in Caerphilly town, in Blackwood and other areas in the county so it's actually fairly widespread...

"People have not been following social distancing rules and having house parties and the like... it is a warning for the rest of Wales."

He said clusters had been seen elsewhere in the country: "It's really how quickly we can identify these and bring them under control that will mark the success and whether we end up getting more such wider outbreaks."

The infection rate in Caerphilly over the past seven days has been recorded as 30.9 people per 100,000 population, the highest in Wales and far above the Welsh average of 7.4 per 100,000 people.

A further 16 cases were reported on Friday in the county.

Just below a quarter of the 233 new cases in Wales over the past week have been in Caerphilly.

First Minister Mark Drakeford tweeted "how quickly things can change" if people do not social distance.

BBC analysis of infection rates across the UK shows Caerphilly is currently ranked about 37th among 380 local authority areas.

The worst-hit areas in the last week are in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, with Bolton on 70 cases per 100,000 and Pendle on 77 cases.

The chief executive of Caerphilly council tweeted to encourage people to use a new walk-in testing facility at Caerphilly Leisure Centre.