Wales comes out of ‘firebreak lockdown’

The First minister of Wales has warned that many people cannot “go back to the way we were living” following the COVID-19 ‘firebreak lockdown’ in the country

The 17-day coronavirus firebreak lockdown in Wales has come to an end and new national measures to combat COVID-19 have come into effect.

The new national restrictions include:

• Groups of up to four people from different households can meet in cafes, pubs and restaurants
• Shops, hairdressers, gyms and places of worship can reopen
• Supermarkets can sell non-essential items
• People can meet inside homes with members of one other household if they are part of a “bubble”
• 10pm curfew on alcohol sales will continue
• No restrictions on travel within Wales, but people will only be allowed to leave the country for reasons such as work
• Two-metre social distancing and wearing face masks in enclosed public places, including on public transport and taxis
• People should work from home whenever possible
• Up to 15 people are allowed take part in an organised indoor activity and up to 30 in an organised activity outdoors, providing all social distancing, hand hygiene and other COVID-19 safety measures are followed
• All schools and year groups will be permitted to resume

This comes after, in England, This comes after Boris Johnson has warned of deaths “on a grievous scale” without further action, such as the 2nd national lockdown, to stem the spread of coronavirus infections. As he opened a House of Commons debate on England’s new lockdown, the prime minister urged MPs to vote in favour of a second national shutdown later on Wednesday.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “We all need to think about our own lives and what we can all do to keep our families safe. We need to stop thinking about the maximum limit of rules and regulations.

“Coronavirus is a highly infectious virus – it thrives on contact between people. To keep each other safe we need to reduce the number of people we have contact with and the amount of time we spend with them

“There will be a new set of national measures from today, which will follow up all the hard work and sacrifices which have been made during the firebreak.

“We cannot go back to the way we were living our lives and throw away all that hard work.”

Asked if there was a case for the Wales lockdown to be extended, Dr Giri Shankar, from Public Health Wales, tells Sky News:

“We have always been very clear that the longer the restrictions stay in place, the more beneficial the impact of that would be, especially on coronavirus transmission.”

“We have always recognised that it’s a balancing act of trying to control the COVID harm versus the non-COVID harms, and therefore the two-week – 17 days – decision was taken by the Welsh government.”

This comes after the UK’s National Health Service is getting ready to administer COVID-19 vaccines before Christmas if a jab is ready, NHS England’s chief executive has said. No vaccines for COVID-19 have yet to have been approved but there are two frontrunners in the late-stages of clinical trials in the UK

He continued saying:

“Clearly coronavirus hasn’t gone away and once we come out of restrictions it isn’t going to be as normal as before, so people still have the duty to comply with the new guidance.”

“The less we mix in society, the less non-essential activities take place, the more beneficial it will be, particularly in the next four to six weeks in the festival period.”