Tryfan and parts of the Ogwen Valley will be out of bounds to visitors. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
Parts of Snowdonia national park will be put into lockdown from Thursday evening.
The Welsh Government has announced four authority areas in north Wales will be added to those in south Wales where bans on people entering and leaving the boroughs are in place.
Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham will be subject to the restrictions from 6pm on Thursday.
Conwy includes the mountains of the Ogwen Valley, including Tryfan, the Glyderau and the Carneddau as well as Capel Curig and Moel Siabod. Y Garn is outside the Conwy local authority area.
Snowdon, Llanberis and the southern part of Snowdonia, including Cadair Idris are not affected by the increased restrictions, but the Clwydian Range, including Moel Famau and the hills around the Horseshoe Pass will be subject to travel bans.
The Cardiff administration’s coronavirus restrictions already apply in parts of the Brecon Beacons national park, which fall into the Rhondda Cynon Taff and Merthyr Tydfil areas.
The government said people will not be allowed to enter or leave each of the locked-down areas without a reasonable excuse, such as travel for work or education.
And people will only be able to meet people they don’t live with outdoors. They will not be able to form, or be in, extended households.
Health minister Vaughan Gething said: “Unfortunately, we have seen a rise in coronavirus cases in four north Wales local authority areas – in Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham and Conwy.
“These are largely linked to people socialising indoors and are the pattern of transmission similar to what we have seen in south Wales.
“We have worked closely with local authority leaders and the police in north Wales and we all agree about the need to take swift action to control and the spread of the virus.
“Large parts of Wales will now be subject to local restrictions but I want to be clear – this is not a national lockdown. These are a series of local restrictions to respond to rises in cases in individual areas.
“It’s always difficult to make the decision to impose restrictions but we hope that these measures will make a positive difference – just as we have seen in Caerphilly and Newport, where local residents have pulled together and followed the rules.
“It is important we all work together and support each other. This isn’t just about protecting ourselves, it’s about protecting each other.”
The government said the restrictions are being introduced following a rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases in coronavirus, which have been linked to people meeting indoors, not following social distancing guidelines and returning from summer holidays overseas.
The Welsh Government met with local authorities, health boards and police across north Wales on Tuesday to discuss the situation across the region, and what measures could be taken to prevent the further spread of the virus and how to protect people’s health.
It said the local restrictions will not be introduced in Anglesey or Gwynedd at this stage, where cases are lower. Snowdon, which had large numbers of walkers queueing to reach its summit over the weekend is in the Gwynedd council area, as are the southern part of Snowdonia and the Lleyn Peninsula.
The new local restrictions will be kept under regular review, the government said. They will be enforced by local authorities and by the police.
Lesley
30 September 2020Why can't people listen to the advice given ,stay home ,stay safe. This is
not rocket science.
You are putting lifes in danger.
Jen
30 September 2020County boundaries make no sense if, for example, Tryfan is off limits but Snowdon is not. It would be better if visitor hotspots, like Snowdon and surrounding areas as well as the main access routes from England were included as a broader geographical boundary.
SK
30 September 2020"Why can't people listen to the advice given ,stay home ,stay safe. This is
not rocket science.
You are putting lifes in danger."
What a load of BS. We moved on from "stay home" 3 months ago and is no longer the advice. The ridiculous "putting lifes in danger" is lockdown paranoia at it's worst.
SL
30 September 2020What's to stop a person driving to a point within their local area and walking a route on the mountains which crosses into a different area. Then, either by the same or by a different route walking back to the start point.
Are they going to position people along the boundary lines to turn people back.
I wouldn't be surprised if they modify the boundary grating to make people crossing it fall through.
Lewis
01 October 2020So I can't drive through Conwy to get to snowdon for a walk?
Mike
01 October 2020SK - you may have been lucky not to have first or second hand experience of the disease or it's impact? If so I'm pleased for you but I disagree with your comments and it is really worrying that you see this as paranoia, I'm afraid it is reality. Less mobility and mixing equals reduced Coronavirus transmission and deaths. 1M worldwide deaths (and this is surely considerably higher) and 42k UK deaths, with both figures constantly growing, can't be faked.
The open hills and uplands are relatively much safer from a virus contagion PoV, but there are still many areas where people will congregate, so safer and simpler to clamp down across the region. And yes we could get very clever about how to circumvent it, but really...…?!
Let's put this into perspective!
01 October 2020Dear Mike, let's put this into perspective.
We are ruining society for a respiratory disease that affects a tiny fraction of the 67 million people that live in the UK. Even the government now acknowledge that we are dealing with a disease with at most a 0.4% mortality rate (200 deathes/50,000 cases). This puts in on par with the 1968/69 HK flu and where was the lockdown then? They also acknowledge that there is at least 50% of the population that are asymptomatic/t-cell immune, yet they proceed to to completely restrict 100% of the population.
I visited Wales in the Summer after the lockdown and the businesses in Betswy Coed were fantastic and absolutely Covid safe.
Lets not rely too much on what the government and the main stream media tell us. The fall out from lockdown affects everyone, wheras shielding the vulnerable and those that are scared will only affect those that are important.
North Wales needs tourist. This will decimate the tourist industry!
Gwyliwr
01 October 2020#LPTIP
Wow! You are so well informed! Perhaps you should pass your insights on to the Welsh Government. I'm sure they will be impressed. If you were able to give them exact references for the sources of your information they would be even more impressed.
Of course the Welsh Government is not taking these steps lightly - do you really think they are making this up just for the hell of it?
Please keep your mis-information to yourself and also please learn how to spell Betws-y-Coed - or have we been getting that wrong too?
Let's put this into perspective!
01 October 2020Dear Gwyliwr, I have not given any "mis-information".
The 0.4% mortality rate slipped in by Sir Patrick Valance during the announcement last week (work out the maths; originally it was 1%) and the 50% asymptomatic (t-cell immunity) was stated by Prof. Neil Ferguson on Radio 4.
This disease is far less lethal than everyone feared in March yet the governments of this country are crushing society and businesses as if we are dealing with Ebola.
I stated that this will decimate the Welsh tourist industry which is the thread of the article.
If you think not, then that is your opinion. I have stated mine.
Ps. apologies for missing the -Y-!
Mike
02 October 2020The impact of lockdown on tourism and the economy (and personal freedom) is awful and it will take years to recover. The human impact of freely allowing Corona to take grip and letting it decimate that 'tiny fraction' of the population would be tragic and cannot be recovered, let alone that such an attitude has worrying parallels.
Anna
02 October 2020There are many other tiny fractions of people dealing with all sorts of diseases, many more fatal than Covid. Living comes with the realisation that we risk dying on a daily basis, from literally so many things. Stopping living (because this is what we are doing currently) for x amount of time, for 0.4% mortality rate, with no clear plan what to do next does not make sense. Back in March we didn't know this. Now we do know that it is not as deadly, statistics and research shows us that. The cases have risen, not the mortality rate. Staying alert is not the same as stop everything and wait. Goverments around the world are now playing the politics game, to show that they don't care about the economy as much as human lives. But it is not that simple, is it? It is not just the economy of the high street that is being impacted, it is also human lives. Statistics in later years for example will show how many people were late diagnosed/treated with various fatal diseases because for the whole of 2020/21 people avoided going to the doctors. Statistics later will show how many people will commit suicide because of this madness. So let's put things into perspective and see the statistics. And stay alert and be careful without causing paranoia that will affect humanity and the planet immeasurably.