But an expert says the move would be “doomed to failure” and bring “cost without benefit”.

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image captionA circuit break would see tighter restrictions would be brought in for a short period
A circuit breaker lockdown is being actively considered for Wales with a decision expected “over the coming few days”, the health minister has said.
Vaughan Gething said: “Many people are pointing to the school half term as a potential way to introduce a break if we were going to do so.”
But an expert said circuit breaker lockdowns were “doomed to failure” and would bring “cost without benefit”.
Speaking to Sky News, First Minister Mark Drakeford also said active talks about introducing the measure were ongoing.
He said: “We want to act now in order to prevent the worst from happening, to give us a better chance of getting through the rest of the autumn and the winter, and if a circuit breaker is the right way to do it then that is what we will do.
“We’re very actively talking about and preparing for that should it be necessary.”
But Dr Roland Salmon, former director of communicable diseases at Public Health Wales, said it will not suppress the virus.
A circuit breaker is a short, set period of maybe two or three weeks, where tighter restrictions are brought in to break the trajectory of coronavirus cases rising.
The UK government’s Scientific Advisory Committee (Sage) urged for the introduction of circuit breaker restrictions three weeks ago.
The Welsh Government says those measures are under consideration in Wales, and earlier this week First Minister Mark Drakeford called on Boris Johnson to convene a Cobra meeting so that all four UK nations could discuss them.
When asked about a circuit breaker on Wednesday, Mr Gething told BBC Breakfast: “It’s a potential way forward that we’re actively considering and over the coming few days we’re going to need to make some choices about whether we’re going to do that or not…
“The next few days will be very important but we’re getting specific advice tailored to Wales to understand what that might look like.”
But Dr Salmon said any short-term measures lasting between two and three weeks would not be long enough to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from households where people are infectious but do not show symptoms.
“I simply don’t think a circuit breaker will work,” he said.
“It won’t work because even Sage (UK government Scientific Advisory Committee for Emergencies) in its consideration thought it would only delay matters, not supress the virus altogether.”
He said whatever period was chosen for a circuit breaker, infectious people would still be released back into the community.
The retired epidemiologist, who led the response to the E-coli outbreak in south Wales in 2005, believes governments should “rethink the whole model” and focus more on shielding the most vulnerable sections of the community, rather than placing restrictions on those considered to be at lower risk.
“I think we should be shielding older people, shielding at-risk occupations and for track and trace the priority should be on those places we know the virus is transmitted, like hospitals, care homes, meat factories, prisons or even universities,” he said.
“We need a rational approach that’s so far been lacking.”
His view was echoed by Prof Dale Andrew Fisher, who specialises in infectious diseases at the National University Hospital, Singapore, and is part of the World Health Organisation’s outbreak alert and response network.
He said circuit breakers were a short-term fix and were not “sustainable”.
“It has to be just to buy time or to recover, but really this virus is going to be with us for a lot longer yet,” he told Claire Summers on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast
“We don’t expect to be vaccinating most of the world until 2022 so we have to learn to live with this virus and we have to be able to go to school, go to work, do our normal activities in a Covid-safe way, limiting the impact of social and economic needs.”
He added: “You shouldn’t need to do this if you can ramp up contact tracing, get all your contacts in quarantine, isolating all the positive cases.
“It needs to be part of a strategy, not ‘lets do a circuit breaker, numbers are down, let’s open up again’.”
It is not clear if a circuit breaker would see schools close in Wales, as is happening in Northern Ireland from Monday.
Laura Doel, director of the National Association of Head Teachers, said any circuit break should be Wales-wide and not down to individual local authorities as confusion causes “more harm than good”.
She said: “The concern for schools is always going to be what about the vulnerable pupils.”
She said a circuit breaker would be “another issue” for parents but added: “On the flipside, this option would be a much needed break for teaching staff at this time.”