The Shadow Health Minister – Angela Burns MS – has described as “welcome news” the announcement from the Chief Medical Officer for Wales today (July 16) that there will be a pause in shielding restrictions from August 16, affecting some 130,000 people.
The CMO, Dr Frank Atherton, said that if Coronavirus continues to decline, then those shielding will be able go shopping, return to work, or go back to school.
Mrs Burns said:
“This will be welcome news for the many thousands of people in Wales who have been under the strictest lockdown restrictions, cut off from family, friends, work, school and any sense of a normal life.”
Mrs Burns added that the group had also suffered in other ways, including confusion earlier in the lockdown when thousands of shielding letters were sent to wrong addresses.
She added:
“I find strange, however, that the date to pause shielding is a Sunday. For those who have been effectively isolated for months, were the pause from the Friday, or even the Saturday, that extra day could mean so much to people.”