It has been an unprecedented three weeks and the council’s new interim chief executive shows no signs of stopping as the authority responds to the covid crisis.

Richard Brown took on the interim chief executive role after the departure of Ian Westley last month, stepping up from his position as head of environmental services and public protection.

With Brexit to come and the sudden change to covid-19 measures this weekend, he and other council staff, have been working hard to keep other essential services running across the county.

Speaking to local democracy reporter Katy Jenkins, Mr. Brown said that it had been “quite manic” following the First Minister’s announcement on Saturday that level four lockdown would be brought forward from December 28 to midnight.

He said it was “in at the deep end” with full council and annual council as well Swansea Bay City Deal and ERW matters all to contend with.

“Three weeks in and is seems like ‘wow where did that three weeks go” said Mr. Brown.

“As you’re probably aware Pembrokeshire’s figures have been going up steadily over the last few weeks,” said Mr. Brown, explaining the increasing pressure on council track and trace teams who not only call to tell people to self-isolate but also get to the bottom of any other contacts that may have taken place.

Their work will continue over Christmas and New Year with cases slowing following school closures but also being seen in workplaces, although the closure of non-essential retail may reduce numbers there.

But this brings another set of problems, he added, with clarification on what business support will be available and the administration of that help, on top of what is already being done, as well as the impact on the local economy.

Mr. Brown said that it was not possible to compare directly case figures with earlier in the pandemic as the level of testing was not in place previously but “more people are being hospitalised now than then” and “simple extrapolation is you’ve got a greater risk of catching Covid-19 now than we’ve ever had previously in Pembrokeshire.”

He urged residents to take care and follow guidelines and restrictions with enforcement team work now focusing on ensuring essential retail spaces were safe for customers and staff, following the closure of the hospitality sector.

“The news about the new variant of Covid and it potentially being more contagious makes it even more important that business and customers are compliant, clearly any sort of relaxation of standards could cause a real problem,” he continued.

More positively, Mr Brown said, numbers in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion were appearing to stabilize, and were not at the level of neighbour Carmarthenshire, so there is “some hope for a bit of optimism there particularly with the lockdown measures in place.”

“Over the next two to three weeks we should see figures start to decrease, all being well.”

Support for the vaccination programme is also being provided and the “absolute key priority is keeping people safe and helping people get through the next few months, there is light at the ned of the tunnel that this new fresh hell can be put behind us,” said Mr. Brown.

Brexit implications were still not clear, he said, but work was underway to protect the county’s ports and surrounding traffic infrastructure.

What impact the closure of routes into France and from Ireland to Pembrokeshire over concerns about the spread of Covid are also not known at present, he added.

“The world doesn’t stop even though covid has to be a priority, there is a lot of important things we have to keep juggling,” said Mr. Brown.

For full details of what council services have had to close and what is still running visit the council’s website pembrokeshire.gov.uk