A county council leader told cabinet colleagues “you need to be a university professor” to understand some of the Welsh Government Covid guidance given to care homes.

Cllr Sam Rowlands made the jibe during his announcements section of Tuesday’s Conwy county council cabinet meeting held over Zoom.

He revealed he had written to health minister Vaughan Gething requesting mandatory testing of care home visitors, funding for care home adaptations, guidance for young people resuming activities outside residential care and easier to read guidance for care homes.

Speaking to cabinet he said: “I wrote to health minister Vaughan Gething asking for more support for care homes.

“I asked him for clear guidance about how care homes should operate.

“Unfortunately with some of the guidance you need to be a university professor to understand it – it’s a good job the first Minister is.

“Also we have asked for (coronavirus) testing for visitors into care homes. I understand Welsh Government is reviewing that work and we look forward to seeing what that will look like in the future.”

Cllr Rowlands also revealed Conwy had only recorded two positive coronavirus tests over the last three days with the  seven-day rate of cases per 100,000 down to just 29.9.

The point at which Welsh Government started to look at areas earlier in the pandemic was when cases hit 25 per 100,000 of population in a given area.

The average across North Wales, said Cllr Rowlands, was currently 83.2 per 100,000 and 185.3 across Wales as a whole.

Thanking council staff, residents and businesses in the county for their help in keeping the “virus level as low as possible” he said: “It’s positive to see that dramatic decrease in numbers.

“But we can’t be complacent. Many areas of Wales are seeing increases again. The advice we are getting is this may take place until the end of this year.

“We understand there may be further restrictions, potentially into the New Year. Keeping this virus as low as possible seems to be a significant priority for everybody.”