The First Minister today confirmed the current conditions
mean Wales has met the criteria in the new traffic-light
Coronavirus Control Plan to move to alert level
four.
The new restrictions will apply to all of Wales.
- All non-essential retail, including close contact
services and all leisure and fitness centres will close at
the end of trading on Christmas Eve.
- All hospitality premises will close from 6pm on Christmas
Day.
- Tighter restrictions on household mixing,
staying-at-home, holiday accommodation and travel will apply
from December 28, after the five-day Christmas period.
The First Minister urged everyone who can to work from home,
saying it is one of the most important contributions we can
all make to controlling the spread of coronavirus and saving
lives.
said:
“We are seeing levels of coronavirus in some parts of the
country that we haven’t experienced at any point before in
this pandemic. This pandemic is putting our NHS under intense
and sustained strain.
“There are more than 2,100 people with coronavirus symptoms
in our hospitals – equivalent to five general hospitals fully
occupied by people with coronavirus.
“This has been such a long and difficult year. We need to
take this action to save lives and control the spread of this
awful virus.”
The four UK governments met today to confirm the common
arrangements for the five-day Christmas period. Joint advice
will be published later today.
In Wales, the position will be that only two households
should come together to form an exclusive Christmas bubble
during that period.
The First Minister added:
“A smaller Christmas is a safer Christmas and a shorter
Christmas is a safer Christmas.
“The fewer people we mix with in our homes, the less chance
we have of catching or spreading the virus.
“None of us wants to be ill this Christmas. And we don’t want
to give coronavirus to our close family or friends.”
The alert level four restrictions for household mixing,
staying-at-home, holiday accommodation and travel will come
into force after the five-day Christmas period on December
28.
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