Drakeford is ‘optimistic’ can be eased in wales to
THE Welsh Government is “optimistic” about making an announcement on support bubbles from the start of next week.
Speaking at the coronavirus briefing yesterday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said he was hoping to make an announcement at the beginning of next week.
A support bubble is where a select group of the population can effectively expand their household and see other people as though they are from their own home, without having to socially distance.
It means they will no longer have to meet these people in the garden or park and can instead be inside together.
The measures have already been introduced in England, with Scotland recently announcing similar rules.
In those countries, single adult households – adults who live alone or with dependent children under the age of 18 – can form a support bubble with one other household, and support bubbles must be exclusive to each other.
The First Minister said he had held “extensive conversations within the Welsh Government on the issue of extended households”.
He added: “I hope to be in a position very early next week to come to conclusions and make some announcements on that.”
When asked by the Echo how confident he was about an announcement early next week, he said conversations were still continuing.
He said: “Yes I am hopeful... conversations are not concluded but will be continuing through the day, but I last met on the issue at the end of [Thursday] and I am optimistic from that meeting we will be able to make an announcement.”
His comments came as it was confirmed the number of people who have died after contracting coronavirus in Wales has risen by two.
Public Health Wales (PHW) said yesterday that the total number of fatalities since the outbreak began has now reached 1,497.
But as it can take two or three days for reports to reach the NHS trust, not all newly-reported deaths have occurred in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, PHW said the number of lab-confirmed positive cases of coronavirus in Wales has increased by 65 to bring the total to 15,531.
Wrexham recorded by far the most new cases with 25, followed by Anglesey (seven) and Gwynedd (five), while 10 were from an unknown location. Conwy had three, Denbighshire two and Flintshire one.
Six local authorities reported no new cases, namely Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen, Pembrokeshire, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea.
Cardiff had two cases and the Vale of Glamorgan one. Bridgend, Merthyr and RCT all also had one case – as did Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly.
And even though testing capacity stands at 12,300 each day in Wales, just 2,878 were carried out on Thursday.
It also revealed there have now been more than 400 confirmed cases of Covid-19 at Welsh meat-processing factories.
Mr Drakeford said there had been 403 cases of coronavirus now confirmed at factories in Merthyr Tydfil, Wrexham and Llangefni.
There has been a large number of cases at similar facilities around the world, as the virus thrives in cold environments where people are close to each other.
Giving an update on figures, Mr Drakeford added: “The latest information I have is that there are 204 confirmed cases at the 2 Sisters plant at Llangefni. This plant remains closed.
“More than 500 people have been tested to date.
“[There have been] 166 confirmed cases at the Rowan Foods plant in