A wider Gwynedd lockdown is “looking likely” unless infection rates slow down, the council leader has said.

Council chiefs shed more light on the decision to implement a local lockdown in Bangor at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday night.

With most of Bangor put into a local lockdown on Saturday, the rest of Gwynedd and neighbouring Anglesey remain the only parts of North Wales not in lockdown.

But the council leader suggested during the meeting that it was “looking likely” that an enhanced zone would be needed “before long” due to infection rates continuing to rise and “heading in the wrong direction” outside of Bangor.

The latest figures show the seven-day rolling infection rates for Gwynedd as 91.5 per 100,000 people between 4 and 10 October, while on Friday the Welsh Government confirmed that the incidence rate varies from 152 cases (per 100,000) in Arfon – which includes Bangor – to 55 in Dwyfor and just 18 in Meirionnydd.

The Welsh Government had previously stated that 50 cases per 100,000 over seven days, would potentially spark local lockdowns, with the health minister stating on Monday that Bangor’s surge was associated “largely but not wholly with younger people and the student population”. It was also blamed on groups of people meeting indoors and not following social distancing guidelines.

On Tuesday Gwynedd Council’s chief executive confirmed that daily meetings are taking place between Gwynedd Council, Welsh Government, public health and Bangor University officials to discuss the developing situation.

Dilwyn Williams added: “There was substantial discussion with the Welsh Government on whether the area should be extended to the rest of Gwynedd as, of course, the county-wide figure was way beyond the trigger point because of the situation relating to Bangor University.

“But the figures for areas such as Meirionnydd and the rest of Arfon, in all honesty, had not quite reached the point. Dwyfor was beyond that point but mainly due to cases surrounding one town, so the feeling when meeting the First Minister was that county-wide measures would not be reasonable at this stage.

“Of course, as the situation develops we may well find ourselves in that situation sooner than we think, unless we can get a grip on the virus.”

Mr Williams noted that the infection rate for Bangor was as high as 400 cases per 100,000 people at one stage and the highest of any part of Wales.

He added: “I suspect that if we continue to see rates rise that Gwynedd, or certainly other areas of Gwynedd, will become part of the local health protection area.”

The council leader, Dyfrig Siencyn, said: “It is looking, as figures are on the rise elsewhere in the county, that there will certainly be a wider health protection area before long. Who can really tell? But certainly the number of cases is heading in the wrong direction.”

• Gwynedd recorded 114 new cases of Covid-19 in the last seven days to yesterday (Tuesday). There were 22 new cases on Tuesday. The total for Gwynedd now stands at 905.