Four families will be able to form social bubble soon

FOUR families will be able to form a household “bubble” in Wales later this month.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said that providing conditions remain stable over the next week the intention is that from Saturday, August 22:

Up to four households will be able to join together to form a single extended household;

A meal following a wedding, civil partnership or funeral will be allowed for up to 30 people indoors if social distancing can be maintained.

Despite the announcement, the Welsh Government will not be making any changes to the rules on people meeting indoors with people who aren’t part of their household or extended household.

This means that people should only visit pubs, restaurants or other places indoors with people from their household or extended household.

Mr Drakeford said: “We are not at a point where we should be visiting anyone’s home at any time.

“Regulations on meeting outdoors were recently changed to make it easier to do, and this remains by far the safest way to meet.

“There are also indications from other parts of the UK where pubs opened earlier than Wales that outbreaks have been linked to those places. If we are to avoid introducing local lockdown measures that could require the whole sector to close, it is vital we can quickly respond to any outbreaks.

“Providing our contact details when attending these premises will mean people can be contacted quickly by our Test Trace Protect teams if they may have been exposed to coronavirus.

“Only by us all doing our part and taking personal responsibility for our actions can we continue to tackle the scourge of coronavirus.”

So while lockdown has eased massively since the spring yet one significant restriction on our social lives remains: We aren’t allowed to meet friends in our own home.

At the moment, while the weather is warm and the evenings are long, people have been happy to meet in parks, on walks or in the countryside.

Yet as the days shorten and the weather worsens, there are fears that people will start to make up their own rules if the Welsh Government cannot articulate clearly what we should be doing.

However leaders in Cardiff Bay believe that evidence shows allowing gatherings indoors – unless people are in an exclusive household bubble – provides too many opportunities for the virus to spread.

It is widely believed that extended families meeting indoors is to blame for some of the problems faced by communities in the north-west of England.

Restrictions on household gatherings in parts of the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester are still continuing. The latest data show that number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the area is not yet falling. There is even a continued rise in cases in Oldham and Pendle.

There had been hopes that by this point in August, the Welsh Government would be able to allow people to meet others from outside their household in their homes providing social distancing rules were followed.

At the end of July the First Minister told us: “Depending on the state of the virus, we may be able to say you can meet people indoors providing you maintain social distance, people who are not even in your bubble at all. But they really will depend on whether the virus is in more vigorous circulation.”

However it was announced by the First Minister yesterday morning that the virus was still spreading too widely to allow this lifting of the lockdown.

Mr Drakeford said: “It is so important we don’t invite people outside our extended households into our homes. We have made so much progress and we mustn’t jeopardise this.

means we are not at a point where we should be visiting anyone’s home at any time. Regulations on meeting outdoors were recently changed to make it easier to do, and this remains by far the safest way to meet.”

For many people, household bubbles have helped but they do not solve every problem. People face difficult decisions about which siblings or grandparents to form extended households with. And they still would like to be able to see the other side of their family.

Even allowing larger bubbles of four households, as will be permitted from August 22, does not solve this