Having lived through multiple lockdowns people in Wales are well aware of the toll they take - especially in winter.
After last Christmas' misery people are desperate to avoid another lockdown but the emergence of the omicron variant has caused alarm across the world.
If the variant is able to get around our vaccines then this presents are real problem because there becomes a serious risk of the NHS being overwhelmed again.
With 11 cases already detected in the UK the chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton has warned it is only a matter of time before a case is picked up here.
Read more: You can follow our coronavirus coverage here.
So what are the chances of the Welsh Government introducing a lockdown before Christmas to stop the spread of the virus?
Last week, before the Omicron variant was known about, Welsh Government minister Vaughan Gething said that only a "vaccine busting" new variant would effect the Christmas period. "Christmas this year will undoubtedly be substantially better than last year because I really don't think we're going to have to make the same sort of decisions we did last year unless there really is a vaccine-busting variant that would cause real concern for us," he said.
There are real concerns that the sheer amount of mutations on the new variant might make the vaccines less effective. We asked the Welsh Government if they would ever sanction a pre-emptive lockdown to stop the virus spreading.
In response a Welsh Government spokesman said: “The emergence of this new variant is a serious development in the ongoing pandemic and reinforces the need for everyone in Wales to get their vaccine or booster when offered, wear face coverings when necessary, and book a test if they develop symptoms.
“We have taken swift action on international travel, alongside the other UK governments.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we have taken a cautious approach and have been guided by the evidence and data. A number of factors – including case rates, hospitalisation rates and demographics – are considered when the Cabinet decides how to respond to and manage the impacts of the pandemic.
“The First Minister, jointly with the First Minister of Scotland, has today written to the Prime Minister seeking a COBRA meeting to discuss the latest evidence about the variant and to understand the wider international picture.
“There is still a lot we do not know about the omicron variant. As we better understand this variant we will be able to determine the next steps. In the meantime, sticking to the rules, following the steps which keep us safe and taking up the offer of a vaccine continue to be the best way to protect ourselves and the NHS.”
It can be taken from this statement that the Welsh Government would be cautious and guided by the Covid situation on the ground. At present the virus is in a slow retreat in Wales with over a week of decline in case numbers. While the virus is in retreat it seems highly unlikely that the Welsh Government would bring in strict lockdown measures that we saw last winter.
However this doesn't mean they are not concerned and monitoring the situation closely.
At present scientists all over the world are scrambling to gather as much information on the new variant as they can. Part of this will be testing it in a lab to see if our existing vaccines are effective against it.
Chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton has said that if the varaiant started doing harm in the community there would "be a trigger for action."
In an interview with WalesOnline Dr Atherton said: "It's very difficult to look into the crystal ball on this one at the moment. But there's a couple of things we can do. It will take a couple of weeks probably for the labs in the US and in the UK to culture the virus and to really understand its characteristics and the likelihood that it will escape our immune systems.
"Having said that there is real-world evidence we can look to. So this variant first surfaced, of course, in southern Africa and so watching the pattern of epidemiology there – even though the population is a bit different and the immune status of the population is different – that will give us some clue. Because if we start to see the the variant expanding into older age cohorts, and if we see those older age cohorts coming to harm, that will give us some indication of what's happening here.
"Ultimately we will, of course, be watching very carefully what our hospital hospitalisation rates here in Wales and in the UK are doing. They are on a downward trend at the moment as the delta virus wave hopefully is waning. But if that starts to turn and the rates go up again, and we start to see more harm in our communities, then that would also be a trigger for action."
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