Written question WQ84259

The public health consensus in December, in both Wales and the wider UK, was that it was highly unlikely the booster programme alone would prevent a very significant burden of direct Covid-related harm in the period immediately after Christmas. We therefore introduced alert level two measures on Boxing Day to help protect people, to keep as many businesses open as possible and to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, both from covid-related demand on services, and from a high proportion of the workforce being off sick or self-isolating at the same time.

The uncertainty and speed of the Omicron variant meant decisions needed to be made in advance of Boxing Day despite remaining uncertainties. Scientific advice was that waiting for more data to have certainty, such as on severity, would mean interventions were likely to be too late to be effective.

The measures taken in Wales drew on our alert levels framework as a proportionate package of measures we had confidence would have an impact on transmission levels and the subsequent impact on our NHS whilst minimising harms. These sought to balance the five harms, such as the indirect health harms, the social harms and the economic harms, as well as the direct harms arising from coronavirus. The actions taken in Wales in response to Omicron were less stringent than those across Europe and our proportionate protections kept the vast majority of our economy open and minimised interference in private lives.

The Cabinet moved to a weekly review of the Coronavirus Regulations in response to the rapidly evolving public health situation to keep under close review the effectiveness, proportionality and necessity of protections in place.

Thanks to everyone following the rules in place since Boxing Day while the fast-moving omicron variant surged through our communities, data considered at the review completed on 14 January suggests cases of coronavirus have started to fall back from their very high levels, which in turn would lower pressures on the NHS. This has enabled the First Minister to set out a phased plan to return Wales to alert level zero measures by 28 January, provided the improvements continue.

Alert level two protections helped to flatten the curve of infections and give us more time to vaccinate more people. These actions helped us to weather the omicron storm with less stringent protections than in previous waves.