The end of the ‘stay local’ rule
LOCKDOWN TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS TO BE EASED FROM TOMORROW, FIRST MINISTER ANNOUNCES
THE “stay local” rule will be lifted from tomorrow, the First Minister has announced.
It means people from within Wales will be allowed to travel anywhere in the country for the first time since December.
However, until April 12, only those with a reasonable excuse, such as going to work, will be able to travel into or out of Wales.
The easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions means that, from tomorrow, self contained holiday accommodation, including hotels with en-suite facilities and room service, can reopen to people from the same household or support bubble.
Rules around international travel are not changing.
Wales is moving out of alert level four, and now starting to move into level three, the Welsh Government has said.
The changes were announced at 11pm yesterday and come into force from tomorrow.
Other changes to restrictions are also being introduced:
■ Six people from two households can meet and exercise outdoors – this is a change from the previous rule which allowed only four people to meet;
■ Organised outdoor activities and sport can resume for under 18s;
■ Libraries and archives can reopen; and,
■ Limited outdoor activities at historic venues and gardens can resume.
The announcement was made as schools prepare to break up for Easter, and ahead of the Easter bank holidays.
The next review of the regulations is due on April 1.
At that review, ministers will look to do the following from April 12:
■ Allow all pupils and students back to schools, colleges and other education venues;
■ Allow all shops and close contact services to open; and,
■ Lift the ban on people from England entering Wales.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “These further relaxations are part of our careful and phased approach to unlocking the restrictions and enabling people and businesses to resume their activities in the safest possible way.
“We’re only able to do this because of the sacrifices everyone across Wales has made over the last few months – everything you are doing to keep your loved ones safe is also keeping Wales safe.
“The public health position remains stable; our incredible vaccination programme goes from strength to strength – we have headroom to make these changes.
“We are taking a step-by-step approach to relaxing restrictions and want to carry on being able to open up Wales. To do that we need everyone’s help. That means staying vigilant for signs of infection; isolating if we have symptoms and arranging to get tested.
“It also means following the basic steps to keep us all safe while we’re out and about – keeping our distance from others, not mixing indoors, avoiding crowds, washing our hands regularly and wearing face coverings.”
There were four new deaths with coronavirus reported yesterday, meaning the number of people who have died with coronavirus in Wales within a month of a positive test is now at 5,495.
The latest daily update from Public Health Wales (PHW) also recorded 227 new positive cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 208,504.
But Dr Eleri Davies, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak response at PHW, said the significant rise in new cases – from 159 the day before – can be attributed to a reporting delay.
She explained: “The Public Health Wales Covid-19 data on the publicfacing dashboard includes 33 new positive results from tests carried out on January 25. The reporting of these tests was delayed because of a discrepancy between different data views which has been investigated and there are now processes in place to help identify such issues.
“Individuals received their results in the normal way, and will have been contacted by their local test, trace, protect (TTP) teams at the time and told to self isolate.
“The results were split across several health board areas, but with larger numbers (11) in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.”
The infection rate across Wales is now 39.1 cases per 100,000 of population based on the seven days up to March 20, which is down from 40.5 on Wednesday.
The percentage of tests coming back with positive results is now further below the key 5% benchmark at 3.2% in the last seven days.
The data show that 1,320,188 people have now received a first dose of the vaccine and a further 378,795 have had both jabs.
Swansea saw the highest number of new cases reported yesterday with 39 followed by Cardiff with 26, Newport with 14, Merthyr Tydfil with 13, Carmarthenshire, Wrexham and Flintshire with 11 each, and Caerphilly with 10. Gwynedd and Neath Port Talbot each had nine new cases, Anglesey and Bridgend each had eight, Monmouthshire, Conwy, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Powys each had seven, Vale of Glamorgan and Pembrokeshire each had six, Denbighshire had four, Torfaen had three and Blaenau Gwent had one. Ceredigion reported none.