Professor Robert Dingwall, a former government Covid adviser, from Nottingham Trent University, said that the omicron variant in Wales is “driving an increase which is not really being contained by these extra restrictions”.

He told The Telegraph: “What I think can be reasonably said is that all of the extra interventions put in place by the Welsh Government really do not seem to have had any impact.”

He added that the same scenario is taking place in certain places in France “which have a lot more restrictions, but are also having big waves of Covid, especially in the major cities”.

“Omicron is so infectious that actually nothing you do makes much difference,” he said.

Cases are ‘rising steeply’ 

It comes as Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, confirmed on Friday that alert level two measures will remain in place for at least one more week, with case rates “rising steeply”.

“Cases are far higher now than they were at the peak of all previous waves,” Mr Drakeford told a Welsh government press conference.

He said the omicron “storm” had hit Wales and warned that the “peak” of the wave could be another 10 to 14 days away.

“Omicron is now the dominant form of the virus in Wales and cases are rising rapidly every day,” he said, adding that previous Covid waves “are nothing compared to the size and speed” of omicron. 

The latest figures show there are more than 2,300 cases per 100,000 people across Wales, compared to 1,271 across England.