The legal requirement to wear face coverings should remain in place in Wales beyond March in line with Scotland, intensive care doctor Ami Jones has said. Dr Jones said she remained concerned about the recent rise in Covid infection rates and the number of her colleagues who have had to take time off work.
Earlier this month First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that all legal Covid measures in Wales could be removed by March 28 providing the situation remains "stable". It means on that date it would no longer be compulsory to wear face coverings in shops, on public transport, or in healthcare settings - and self-isolation will not be required by law.
However, case rates have been creeping up and now stand at 279.8 cases for every 100,000 people. In mid-February the figure was as low as 150 cases per 100,000. All other parts of the UK have experienced similar increases this month. And Dr Jones said that hospitalisations were starting to creep up, from a very low level, as the virus spreads rapidly in the community.
Read more: The Covid symptoms for Deltacron, Omicron and the BA.2 strains you should look out for
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales on Thursday morning Dr Jones, who works at The Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, said that while intensive care currently has very few Covid-positive patients she has seen a notable rise in staff sickness.
"We've been pretty quiet in terms of Covid in intensive care for the last little while, but I have noticed it more in my population of colleagues, so we've got lots of people off sick. I think it's affecting the general public and there's a lot of it out there," she said.
"I've had colleagues who have not had it for the entire two years, managed to come through every single wave with nothing and they've got it for the first time. And that's the same with friends and family. I think that's the experience of a lot of people.
"Luckily, I think mainly due to vaccination, it's not translating into serious illness. We're not seeing too many people in hospital and we're certainly seeing very few in ITU. But the numbers do seem to be increasing."
Just minutes after the BBC interview had finished, Dr Jones tweeted that her five-year-old son had tested positive on a lateral flow test despite having no symptoms. She stated: "He's completely asymptomatic and furious he can't go to school to play with his pals.
"He had a negative LFT yesterday but insisted on doing one today (I think cos he likes that it tickles your nose). I was just about to leave for work but instead I'm off to get a PCR."
Dr Jones admitted it was hard to tell whether more patients would soon be arriving in intensive care on the back of a rise in the infection rate, but she said she was keeping a close eye on the new Omicron sub-variant BA.2.
"If we look to the south east of Asia, China and Hong Kong are suffering very, very high rates. Whenever a new kind of variant or sub variant starts to rear its head, we always wonder whether it's going to be a big deal," she added.
"We were worried about Omicron, but it turned out it wasn't too bad. Until it hits the population, you just can't really predict how these mutations are gonna go. So I think every time we see the numbers start to peak, we wonder what this means for us in the hospital - but we have to wait and see."
Dr Jones, an employee of Aneurin Bevan UHB, said complacency has set in for some sections of Welsh society as more restrictions are eased.
"People hope it's gone away, but it hasn't. That's wishful thinking. A good proportion of the population is still being quite guarded, but some have relaxed a little bit," she added.
"The fact we still have to wear masks in public places indoors is a good thing, and the fact that we're still able to test for free is a good thing. We just need to look to the government to keep some sensible things like that in place if the numbers carry on rising."
When asked about Scotland opting to keep its legal face covering requirement in place until April, Dr Jones said: "If I was in charge of policy I would [keep the law in place]. It's a very infectious disease. If you sit next to somebody in a poorly-ventilated indoor space, the chances are you're quite highly likely to catch it.
"So personally, even if they remove the restrictions I will continue to wear masks in indoor public places. I don't want to catch Covid, I don't want to end up being off work and not being able to do my job. I think that's the concern for a lot of us now.
"We're not so worried about ending up hospitalised and dying, but we are concerned about the kind of disruption to normal life that it will cause."
Dr Jones reiterated that she was pleased with the Welsh Government for continuing to offer free testing for the next couple of months rather than scrapping it altogether like in England.
"If you know you're going to go to a party where you sit indoors with your friends, it is a really good, responsible thing to be able to take a test before you go.
"Thanks to the vaccine, there are now lots and lots of people who are asymptomatic and happen to have a positive test, and the last thing you want to do is infect all your friends. So I think the ability to test would be a really useful thing to have in the longer term."
