| COVID-19 pandemic in Wales | |
|---|---|
| Disease | COVID-19 |
| Virus strain | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Location | Wales |
| First outbreak | Wuhan, Hubei, China |
| Index case | Caerphilly |
| Arrival date | 28 February 2020 – 5 May 2023 (3 years and 3 months) |
| Confirmed cases | 874,232[1][note 1][2] |
| Hospitalised cases |
|
| Ventilator cases | 31[2] (active, as of 28 December 2021) |
| Recovered | no data[3] |
Deaths | |
| Fatality rate | |
| Government website | |
| gov | |
| Part of a series on the |
| COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies |
|---|
 |
| (Part of the global COVID-19 pandemic) |
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The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Wales on 28 February 2020, with a case being reported in the Swansea area; this first known case was a person who had recently returned from Italy.[5] The first known case of community transmission was reported on 11 March in the Caerphilly area.[6]
Wide-ranging restrictions began on many aspects of life in the second half of March 2020; restrictions were relaxed in Wales during the summer once the first wave of virus had passed. In the autumn of that year, with cases rising, restrictions began to be tightened again with individual areas being placed under localised lockdowns. A two-week complete "circuit-breaker" lockdown began in late October. Rising cases and a new variant of the virus led to restrictions being increased again in December. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations and a fall in cases led to restrictions being relaxed in the spring and summer. Restrictions were briefly tightened and relaxed at around the end of 2021 due to a new variant of the virus. Most COVID-19 related legal restrictions concluded in Wales by the end of March and much of the infrastructure built up around managing the virus was wound down by the middle of 2022.
Many aspects of the response to COVID-19 were the responsibility of the devolved Welsh government.[7] Health is a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Though healthcare is largely run by the state across the UK (through NHS Wales in the Welsh case) with some private and charitable provision, policy and outcomes vary.[8][9] There was a Conservative Government in Westminster, and a Labour led Government in Cardiff; this ideological divide may have contributed to variances in approach.
- ^ "Public Health Wales Rapid COVID-19 Surveillance See Tab: Summary". public.tableau.com/profile/public.health.wales.health.protection. 3 August 2021. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Coronavirus (COVID-19) in UK". Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
- ^ The UK Government does not publish the number of recovered cases.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
PublicHealthWalesDeathswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Coronavirus: First Welsh case among three new UK diagnoses". BBC News. 28 February 2020. Archived from the original on 28 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ "Coronavirus: First community transmission detected in Wales". BBC News. 11 March 2020. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
- ^ "Coronavirus: What decisions are made in Wales?". BBC News. 10 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ "'Huge contrasts' in devolved NHS". BBC News. 28 August 2008. Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ "NHS now four different systems". BBC News. 2 January 2008. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).