Travel curbs to end and tourism to return in July
WALES plans to end its fivemile restriction on travel next month and allow holidaymakers to return a week later, the First Minister has said.
Mark Drakeford said yesterday that tourism businesses have three weeks to prepare for the potential changes, which will allow the use of self-contained accommodation such as caravans and cottages.
Mr Drakeford said the further headroom to lift restrictions has been created by the efforts of the public to bring coronavirus under control in Wales, where the R number shows Covid-19 is receding at a faster rate than in England.
He said that at the height of the pandemic, one in every 1,000 people in Wales was “probably infectious”, but that has now dropped to one in 10,000 or lower.
It means Monday will also see the reopening of all non-essential shops – plus outdoor markets – as long as they can comply with social distancing measures, while the housing market will also resume by allowing house viewings to take place in
properties and house moves where a sale has been agreed but not yet completed.
More outdoor individual activities such as tennis will be allowed for the first time since lockdown, again as long as social distancing is in place – enabling non-professional elite athletes including Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls to resume training – but no contact or team sports will be allowed.
Private prayer in places of worship with social distancing can also take place from Monday.
And childcare facilities will be available on a phased basis to support people returning to work.
Mr Drakeford told the Welsh Government’s daily press briefing the five-mile “stay local” requirement would end on July 6 if transmissions continue to fall, but warned that “coronavirus is not over”.
He said: “On July 6, we will lift the requirements to stay local, provided the evidence at the time continues to support this.
“This means we are asking the people of Wales to stay local to keep Wales safe for two more weeks.
“The reason we’re doing that is simple, coronavirus is not over. Every day, people are being infected.”
Mr Drakeford said that though fines would remain in place for people breaching the travel rule during the next two weeks, a “significant change” in the regulations meant that people would be able to travel beyond their local area for “compassionate reasons” including to visit sick relatives.
He added: “We are now making concerted steps to resume something approaching a new normal while living alongside coronavirus.
“This public health crisis is not yet over. Through all our efforts, we have succeeded in bringing the fire of coronavirus under control. But that fire is not yet out.”
Mr Drakeford said tourism and visitor sectors could now plan to welcome people for when the “stay local” requirement is lifted, meaning businesses can begin to take bookings for the week beginning July 13, though he warned it would “have to be at their own risk” should the plan be scrapped.
Holidaymakers will be restricted to self-contained accommodation, including caravans with their own kitchen and bathroom, cottages, and hotels and bed and breakfasts that are en-suite and provide room service meals.
Hairdressers were also given notice that they should use the next three weeks to prepare for services to resume by appointment only and with safeguards in place.
Wales is currently the only UK nation not to have “bubble” arrangements in place, but Mr Drakeford said the Government has been considering allowing households to form a bubble where households can see another as though they are from their own home, and could announce a decision on that before the next review period of the regulations in three weeks.
This is likely to involve a single household “bubbling” with another household to give relief to people who have been “particularly isolated” as a result of the coronavirus restrictions.
Such a move means people will no longer have to meet these people in the garden or park and can instead be inside together.
Under new Scottish guidelines, single adult households – adults who live alone or with dependent children under the age of 18 only – can form a support bubble with one other household.
Mr Drakeford said: “We don’t have to wait for three weeks. We can make a change at any point in the three-week cycle.”
He added: “It is likely to involve two households, a single household bubbling with another house. Giving some relief to those people who have been particularly isolated as a result of the coronavirus restrictions. We will work that out with our chief medical officer and advisers next week.”
Responding to the announcement, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart praised Mr Drakeford for bringing the country in closer alignment to the other UK nations, and said the plans provided clarity for businesses and people in Wales.
He said: “There continue to be more similarities than differences in the approaches of the different administrations of the UK and I look forward to further collaboration with the Welsh Government on helping all sectors of our economy to bounce back.”
The leader of the Senedd’s Welsh Conservatives, Paul Davies MS, said Mr Drakeford had “woken up” to the need to publish a timetable for lifting of restrictions, but said the fivemile rule should have been lifted sooner.
Plaid Cymru’s shadow health minister Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said people and businesses needed a “longer-term view” of future plans rather than the current two and three-week block being provided.
The First Minister also said he does not think there will be a need to manage movement across the border with England if English cases rise far above Wales.
When asked if England’s rate of infection was a factor in Welsh Government decisionmaking Mr Drakeford said: “It will be a factor of course.
“But it is an ‘if’ isn’t it? We take all these factors into account including what is happening and what is happening along our border.”
He added that he did not plan on any kind of border controls.
“I am not attracted to the idea of border controls between Wales and England,” he said.
“There are differences within England that are more significant than the differences between England and Wales.
“What we will have to do as our economy and our society reopens on both sides of the border, as people travel more the first things they should ask themselves is, is my journey necessary? Because the less you travel the safer you are.
“When you decide to travel... then you must make sure you do that in a thoughtful way having prepared for it, having put the safety measures in place, behave sensibly and responsibly when you arrive at your destination.”
Mr Drakeford also said he had confidence that people in England would be sensible when they travelled to Wales.
He said: “I have got just as much confidence that people on the other side of our border think carefully about these things as I have about the way that we think about these things in Wales.
“Provided we go on doing things in that way we will go on succeeding.
“If we all think it is all over, and just pile back into doing things in the way we always did them, then we will be throwing away all the efforts we have made together in the last three months.”
Meanwhile, Public Health Wales said a further four people had died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths to 1,475, while the total number of cases increased by 31 to 15,001.