Return to council chamber put on hold over Omicron concern

Councillors in Monmouthshire will not return to the chamber as planned this week due to concerns over the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Monmouthshire council has recently carried out a refurbishment of its headquarters at County Hall in Usk, installing new equipment to allow for hybrid meetings to take place.

New microphones and bigger screens have been installed, with equipment in place to allow some members to join online and some in the chamber.

After months of online meetings, this Thursday’s meeting was scheduled to be the first full council meeting with the new equipment in place.

A meeting of the council’s cabinet on December 1 took place with some members in the chamber, but other meetings have remained online.

It was hoped that several members would be able to take part from the chamber this Thursday as part of the new hybrid approach.

However on Monday the council confirmed that the meeting will now be held “fully online”.

A council spokeswoman said: “The livestream can be viewed online as usual and councillors will not be coming into County Hall given the uncertainty around the new variant.”

It came as Public Health Wales confirmed a further 15 new cases of the Omicron variant in Wales on Monday.