Covid: Thirteen Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire schools close

More than a dozen schools and a college campus in a rural area of west Wales are closed from Monday due to Covid-19.

Seven schools in the Cardigan area and six schools in north Pembrokeshire have shut as well as Coleg Ceredigion's Cardigan campus.

Ceredigion council said it has become "increasingly concerned" about the spread of the virus in the area.

Council leader Ellen ap Gwynn blamed "super-spreader events" such as "parties" and "pub crawls".

The Cardigan schools - one secondary and six primaries - have closed for two weeks.

The schools in Pembrokeshire - one secondary and five primaries close to the Ceredigion border - will remain shut on Tuesday.

Teaching at Coleg Ceredigion in Cardigan will take place online for the next two weeks, the college said in a statement.

In a letter, Ceredigion council said seven schools and two nurseries would be closed until 7 December and pupils will be taught remotely.

The affected schools include:

The Flying Start Nurseries in Cardigan and Aberporth will also shut, along with Cardigan library.

A number of businesses in the area have also said they will be closed due to the spread of cases.

In addition, Pembrokeshire Council confirmed six schools would close "as a precaution" because they share services such as transport with schools in Ceredigion. They are:

Earlier in the pandemic, Ceredigion council was widely praised for its response, which helped put its death rate second-lowest only to the Isles of Scilly across England and Wales.

But in recent months, the case rate has been creeping up with outbreaks linked to Aberystwyth University and a care home in the town.

In the seven days to 19 November, the county had a rate of infection of 100 per 100,000 population, which is higher than Gwynedd (24), Anglesey (26), Conwy (38), Pembrokeshire (68), Powys (90) and Denbighshire (93).

Cardigan and Aberporth have seen 18 positive cases in the last week - a local case rate of 202.7 per 100,000 people.

Although this is still comparatively low compared to other local areas in Wales, it has only seen a total of 44 cases across the whole pandemic so far.

Ceredigion's case rate is currently back up to just over 100 per 100,000 people in the last seven days. It rose earlier in the month to nearly 130.

Ms ap Gwynn told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast the council's own test and trace team had identified the source of community transmission.

"Apparently there were parties on both weekends and also people going around the pubs having pub crawls," she said.

"I think people after the last lockdown thought 'hooray, we can enjoy, we can relax now, and we are out of this more or less because there's a vaccine coming'. They are letting their guard down unfortunately."

Ms ap Gwynn said the council was "working closely" with Hywel Dda health board and Public Health Wales.

Cardigan mayor Clive Davies told BBC Wales he was "very worried this time" because the virus was in the community.

He praised the local authority for acting swiftly but added: "Unlike other incidents in the county, like [Aberystwyth] university, this is out in the community and it is going to be more difficult to get it under control."

He thanked businesses that had voluntarily closed for the time being.