LOCAL lockdowns are designed to be ‘reversible’ when the Welsh Government see that the situation is improving.

Speaking at the Welsh Government briefing on Wednesday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said that there will be a number of tests administered when an area enters a local lockdown before it has area-specific measures removed.

He said: “As we have learnt that it is easier to put places into lockdown than it is to take them out of it. But, our local lockdown measures are designed to be reversible and to be reversible when we see signs of things improving.

“There will be a number of tests we use. Prevalence of course is one, seeing how many people in the area are catching coronavirus. Positivity in test results is another. We will put a number of those measures together to decide whether it is then safe to begin lifting those local lockdown measures.

“I am very keen that when the time is right that we move in that direction.”

When asked how measures would be removed, Mr Drakeford says that it would likely be one restriction at a time rather than a complete removal of all measures.

He adds that this “cautious” way would protect people’s health.

This clarification also stands as a good benchmark for areas not on the current ‘watchlist’ of how they can avoid the need of a small-scale lockdown altogether.

In the last week, the Leader reported that Flintshire (as well as other North Wales counties) joined the amber alert band of the Welsh Government’s coronavirus watchlist.

Recent figures show that in the last week, according to Public Health Wales figures, there have been a total of 30 new confirmed cases of the virus.

Dr Giri Shankar, Public Health Wales' incident director for the coronavirus outbreak, said Flintshire – along with Anglesey, Conwy and Denbighshire – are now the areas of North Wales placed in the "amber zone" and could also face lockdowns if cases rise further.

Dr Shanker said: "I certainly hope that we don't get to that position but if case numbers continue to go up and we see more people going into hospital and needing intensive care and we see cases in our vulnerable groups... we might have to consider complete lockdowns."