Residents across Breconshire and Radnorshire are being urged to keep hold of their facemasks for prospective medical appointments.

While restrictions are being lifted by the national government around the Covid-19 pandemic, the Powys Association of Volunteer Organisations is issuing the reminder that it does not mean the virus has gone away.

This comes as GPs are calling for the public to be mindful that, at times, you may still be asked to wear a mask when visiting their surgery. Covid-19 is still affecting health teams and impacting services within our community and will continue to for the foreseeable future.

PAVO Health Promotions Facilitator Gareth Ratcliffe said: “From today – we would kindly ask patients presenting with any respiratory condition (even if testing negative on LFT) to continue to wear a face-covering when attending the surgery, this is both to protect them but also other vulnerable patients and the staff.

“Covid-19 is still affecting health teams and impacting services within our community and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

“We have small teams and losing members of staff who are infected with the virus and need to isolate in line with current regulations for health care staff, puts a strain on our teams to continue to deliver service to all of the community.

“Wearing of face masks continues to be under review at a local level, and although currently not a legal requirement we are very conscious of the uncontained spread of Covid-19 and would ask everyone to support us with this when requested.”