WALES MAY ADOPT TIGHTER RULES:
WALES could adopt tighter nationwide restrictions mirroring those included in England and Scotland’s tier systems in order to have a common approach ahead of the Christmas period, Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said.
Mr Gething said the measures, which would result in “changes” for people in Wales for a “limited period of time”, would be considered as England comes to the end of its four-week lockdown.
Wales has only been under its current national set of restrictions for just over a fortnight since it left its own 17-day firebreak lockdown on November 9.
But Mr Gething said ministers were considering “a more common approach to measures” with the rest of the UK amid a rise in new virus cases in parts of Wales and in order to facilitate travel plans between other UK nations.
It is thought a common UK-wide approach to coronavirus restrictions over Christmas would likely see slightly larger numbers of households permitted to gather for a short period of time around December 25. Neither details nor a timeframe are yet to be agreed.
Yesterday he told the Welsh Government’s press briefing: “We need to get to the festive season, but that may mean we’ll look to potentially think about the measures that Scotland have introduced as well as England where they have a tiered system that largely complements the other.
“So we’ll be be thinking over the next week about whether we do need to have common approaches as far as possible, in terms of how we ask people to go about living their lives, and that may mean there will be some changes.
“We’ll think about that as England comes to the end of their fourweek lockdown to try and give us all the headroom we want to have the sort of Christmas we want to have together.” Mr Gething said the Welsh Government had wanted a “consistent set of national measures” across Wales after the firebreak ended instead of the series of local lockdowns in place before it entered lockdown.
“I wouldn’t say that we can expect to have a patchwork approach within Wales but we’ll need to consider that and discuss that,” he said. Imposing measures that are similar to elsewhere in the UK could provide the “headroom” needed for the festive period, he said.
Asked about how people should prepare for any such loosening of the rules over the festive season Mr Gething said: “It’s about the number of people you see, the contact you have.
“If you’re moving from one part of the country to another – whether that’s within Wales or other parts of the United Kingdom – then we ask people in particular to think about the length of time they see other people for and whether actually they can take a complete break from seeing other people before they travel, potentially to stay with other family or friends, because indoor mixing is the area of our greatest concern.”
He added: “I haven’t been in my mother’s house to be indoors and to give her a hug since March.
“I’d love to see my mum and go inside her house this Christmas, but I want to see my mum on her birthday when it comes up next year and I want to see her on my birthday, my son’s birthday, and I want to be able to see her next Christmas too.
“So some of our challenges are about thinking of what we need to do in a very different way this year to make sure we can still celebrate future life events with our loved ones.”
Part of the decision to allow greater freedom over Christmas centres on knowing some people would simply breach rules if they were not allowed to do so, Mr Gething conceded.
“Whatever the rules say, we are still going to ask people what they should
do,” he said.
“We’re looking to reflect the reality that if the rules said ‘You can’t meet anybody else for Christmas’ people would do it anyway, and we’re not looking to have people potentially commit offences for the natural issue of wanting to see people around this period but to help people shape that behaviour and again think about ‘what should I do?’.
“We’re not asking people to live in large extended household groups for five, three, four [days] or whatever the period of time is that we land on – it’s more about enabling people to have some contact.
“But it’s still then about managing that contact and reducing it as far as possible and reducing the length of time as far as possible as well.
“Again, we’ve got to think about who we would want to see over this Christmas, but also who would we like to see again and again and again in the future and not to have the unnecessary risk of losing those people if we are not prepared to be responsible and to limit the contact we have in advance of Christmas, during Christmas, and afterwards too.”
First Minister Mark Drakeford spoke with his Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts, as well as Michael Gove on behalf of the UK Government, about the Christmas plans over the weekend.
Mr Gething said there was “clarity and agreement that we want to have as common an approach as possible across all four countries” due both to the issue of travel but also around keeping public messaging as simple as possible.
Details could be agreed “within the next few days” and Mr Gething said the Welsh Government hoped for “as common an announcement as possible”.
To date no decision has been reached on a timeframe for the relaxed restrictions or exactly how many households would be allowed to join up.
The Welsh Government cabinet were due to meet last night and another four-nations meeting is expected to take place “in the next day or two”.
Meanwhile, Mr Gething said there was “good evidence” that the firebreak had been effective, but the challenge was getting to Christmas and having a relaxation of rules.
A “worrying” rise in new cases in some parts of country include a spike in people under the age of 25 over the last seven days, though Mr Gething said the “broad situation across Wales remains stable.”
Last night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned families to make a “careful judgment” about visiting elderly relatives at Christmas as he revealed plans for a temporary easing of restrictions.
The Prime Minister said the virus “is obviously not going to grant a Christmas truce” and warned that if festive revellers “blow it with a big blowout Christmas”, the country will pay for it with tougher restrictions in the new year.