Pubs, restaurants and cinemas are set to reopen in Wales from Monday – but ministers are urging people to delay foreign trips for at least three weeks.
First Minster Mark Drakeford said the country’s alert level will be lowered from three to two on May 17 due to low Covid figures and the highest vaccination rates in the UK.
But while holidays to ‘green list’ countries can resume from Monday, the Welsh Government is advising essential travel only to prevent a spike in imported cases.
And Mr Drakeford this morning revealed there would have been ‘a small number of further easements’ – such as reopening smaller events and allowing indoor mixing outside of a bubble – in the lockdown on Monday.
However, he decided to hold off in case the Indian variant of the virus is ‘on the march’ to Wales – after 17 cases of the mutation were reported there yesterday.
Wales’ seven-day infection rate is 9.2 per 100,000 people – significantly lower than England on 22.1, Scotland on 23.8, and Northern Ireland on 32.6, the UK Government’s Covid-19 tracker has revealed.
First Minster Mark Drakeford said Wales’ alert level will be lowered from three to two on Monday due to low Covid figures and the highest vaccination rates in the UK
Under the eased rules from May 17, indoor service for pubs, restaurants, bars and cafes – as well as entertainment venues like cinemas – will resume.
Meanwhile, up to 30 people can take part in organised indoor events and up to 50 people in organised outdoor events.
Mr Drakeford will confirm the rule changes a press briefing on Friday.
He will also state that while international travel will also resume from Monday, extra safeguards will be put in place to prevent the virus re-entering Wales.
The Welsh Government is advising people to only travel abroad for essential purposes.
Speaking on Radio 4 today, Mr Drakeford addressed concerns about the Indian variant in the country.
He said: ‘Our approach has always been to pause, review, when we’re confident that its safe to move forward, to do so. And that’s the same pattern that we will be following today.
‘There were 17 cases of the Indian variant in Wales yesterday and over 700 in England.
‘And as we were just hearing, there’s quite a concentration of that in the north west of England and there’s a lot of traffic between the north east of Wales and the north west of England.
‘We were considering a small number of further easements from Monday but have decided to hold back on those until we get the advise from Sage […] just to make sure that we are continuing to take a precautionary approach in case the Indian variant is on the march. And therefore Wales would be vulnerable to it as well.’
When asked whether Wales’ roadmap could change depending on advice from scientists, he said: ‘We have tried our best to follow the advice at every step, and if the advice was to be that we should hold back in some further easements because the risks in doing so would be too great then certainly that is what we would do.’
He told Sky News that plans to allow smaller events to reopen – as well as relaxing rules on people meeting – had been paused.
Mr Drakeford said: ‘We had thought of moving ahead with the reopening of smaller events, we’ll pause that for a moment.
‘We were thinking of liberalising the rules in the way in which people can meet together, not just in their extended household but beyond that, we’ll pause that for the moment.
‘If the advice on the Indian variant is that it is safe to move ahead, we won’t need to wait for the end of our next three-week cycle to do those things, but the Indian variant is giving us cause for concern.
‘We don’t know enough about whether it is more transmissible than the Kent variant, we don’t know enough about whether the vaccination programme is as effective in dealing with it as it is with other variants we have in Wales, and until we’re a bit clearer on that I think it is sensible to take a precautionary approach.’
Announcing the news that some lockdown restrictions would lift, Mr Drakeford early said: ‘Thanks to everyone’s hard work and ongoing efforts, we can take another step towards relaxing the coronavirus restrictions and move to alert level two on Monday.
‘Indoor hospitality will be able to reopen, a move that will be welcomed by many of us as we look forward to enjoying a drink, a meal and the company of friends and family in a cafe or pub.
‘By sticking with the rules and our successful vaccine programme, we are making really good progress in controlling the virus and keeping rates low.
‘But the pandemic isn’t over – the new, so-called Indian variant of concern is another unwanted twist in this pandemic, which we are monitoring closely.’
Earlier this week, the Welsh Government announced businesses still affected by restrictions can claim additional financial support of up to £25,000 to help meet ongoing costs.
If public health conditions remain positive, the next three-week review will consider allowing more people to meet in homes.
It will also look at increasing the number of people who can meet outdoors and the number of people who can attend organised activities and events, including wedding receptions, to 50 indoors and 100 outdoors, as well as allowing larger-scale events to take place indoors and outdoors.
The easing of rules in Wales follows reports that ten million people could have their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine brought forward as the Government tries to slow the spread of the Indian variant.
Ministers last night approved plans aimed at slowing the spread of the imported strain of Covid-19, after cases doubled in a week.
Public Health England data show that Covid cases increased in more local authority areas in the week ending May 9 than in the previous week, when they were falling in the majority of areas
Older people living in areas of high infection are also to be offered their second dose of the vaccine early to protect them.
It means a total of ten million people who are considered to be most vulnerable could have their second doses of the vaccine brought forward to prevent them getting hospitalised if Britain faces a third wave, The Times reported.
So far, most people aged over 65 have had both doses, but only around a quarter of people in their 50s have – leaving more than six million people in this group still without full protection.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday he was ‘anxious’ about the 100 per cent increase in cases in some areas, as the national infection rate started to also creep back up.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has also been asked to examine the case for ‘targeted vaccinations’ of all over-17s in the worst-hit areas.
An emergency meeting will be held by experts at the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies committee on Thursday after it was found that India’s Covid variant is now dominant in five local authorities in England. There are mounting concerns that it is more infectious than the currently dominant Kent strain
Surge testing for the new coronavirus variant will also be deployed in areas where it is spreading rapidly. Boris Johnson said he was ‘anxious’ about the variant and refused to rule out local lockdowns to help try to contain it.
Government sources also played down the risk that outbreaks of the ‘variant of concern’ could derail the plans to lift the lockdown on June 21 – as some scientists called for the lifting to be postponed.
Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings also shared on social media warnings by scientists that the roadmap out of lockdown should be delayed.
The new variant spreads at an alarming rate, with Public Health England last night revealing that cases in the UK had more than doubled from 520 to 1,313 in a week.
But a source said there was no evidence so far that current vaccines would fail to protect against serious disease and death. ‘If it is just spreading quicker, that is no reason to change course,’ the source said.
‘The important thing is that we do not see a rise in hospitalisations and deaths. But we have to be cautious because we just do not know enough about this variant.’
Last night’s move will see people aged over 50 and those with underlying health conditions offered their second jab earlier if they are living in an area where the Indian variant is spreading fast.
Figures yesterday showed the UK had recorded its biggest daily rise in cases since April 27. There were 2,657 new cases of the disease, up from 2,284 new cases the day before. Eleven patients were confirmed to have died within 28 days of a positive test, the same as the previous day.
Blackburn with Darwen Council in Lancashire yesterday claimed jabs would be offered to all over-17s, after infection levels doubled in a week, but later changed its mind and said the vaccines would be offered only to those age groups which had been invited to come forward by the NHS.
But neighbouring Bolton – which has the highest infection rates in the country – last night pleaded with the Government to be allowed to administer jabs to all adults.
David Greenhalgh, the council’s Conservative leader said: ‘Send us more vaccinations and allow us to vaccinate 18 years-plus now. That is the answer, not further restrictions.’
Other known hotspots include Bedford and Sefton in Merseyside. Britain’s national outbreak remains generally flat, with another 2,657 more coronavirus cases and 11 deaths.
The Prime Minister said yesterday: ‘It is a variant of concern, we are anxious about it.’
Speaking at a primary school in Ferryhill, County Durham, he said: ‘There is a very wide range of scientific opinion about what could happen. We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take. There is a range of things we could do – we are ruling nothing out.’
The variant spreads more quickly than the Kent strain, which is currently the most dominant in the UK, although scientists are not yet sure whether it causes more severe illness and hospitalisations.