Covid lockdown restrictions did not help save lives in Wales, a former health boss has said as ministers discuss whether to go ahead with lifting restrictions this Friday.
Dr Roland Salmon, former director of communicable diseases for Public Health Wales, said that there is "little evidence" from around the world to show that the restrictions worked. He also said that there were "far too many restrictions, for far too long."
At the start of March First Minister Mark Drakeford said that if the situation remains "stable" that all legal restrictions will finally be removed on Monday, March 28. That means it will no longer be compulsory to wear face coverings in shops, on public transport, or in healthcare settings from that date and self-isolation will not be required by law. However, cases are rises and the situation is not stable. You can follow the latest update from health minister Eluned Morgan here.
READ MORE: The reasons why Covid infection rates are rising again in Wales
Dr Salmon, who has been a long-standing critic of lockdowns, told BBC Wales on Tuesday: "The Welsh Government, on the recent uptake of last couple of weeks in cases, doesn't find itself stampeding into trying to take wider measures such as lockdowns and home working, travel restrictions, home working.
"I think that is because the evidence is increasingly appearing that really that sort of stuff hasn't worked., or hasn't worked very much in any consistent way. We have just had a massive study of excess deaths from all 191 countries around the world, done by academics in the United States. The one thing that is very clear from that, apart from the fact that excess mortality is higher than we might expect, is that how well, badly, countries have done bears little relation to how strict or consistent their different, wider measures have been.
"We might value the Welsh Government's cautious approach, because we might value caution as a virtue. But I am afraid to say there is not much evidence that it has actually saved any lives, or any more lives that more haphazard approaches."
He was speaking at the latest figures from Public Health Wales show that infection rates have risen in all 22 areas of the country.
The latest infection rate based on PCR tests for the seven days up to March 13 is 335 cases for every 100,000 people – a rise from the 304.5 cases recorded on Friday. The infection rate went above 300 for the first time since the week beginning February 6 last Friday. You can see the number of cases in your area here.
But Dr Salmon said introducing more restrictions was not the way forward, adding: "We had far too many restrictions for far too long. There is really very little evidence of benefit throughout.
"Now that we can look at the number of excess deaths from all causes, we see that Wales has done much the same as Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and other countries in Europe, despite radically different approaches with different degrees of restrictions being taken in those different countries. It is very hard to make a case for the measures that have been taken."
Last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced lthe requirement to wear face coverings in shops and on public transport would remain until at least early April, but Dr Salmon said that masks did not offer much protection: "I think they might keep rules around masks, but of all the things they might do, I think this is one that will arguably not be too disruptive.
"We have to realistic. In doing that, we are probably not going to achieve very much. When you study masks in the laboratory, you can show quite dramatic drops in transmission rates of around 50%, but most of the studies that have ever been done in communities show that the effect is much more modest - around 10%."
He did highlight the roll-out of vaccines as being a positive and said that the Welsh Government's focus on protecting the vulnerable had worked well.
Adding:. "Focusing on the vulnerable will achieve much more than global measures the politicians seem to have latched on to."
