It’s the end of Covid rules

TOMORROW will see the removal of Wales’ final remaining Covid rules.

In a landmark moment, after more than two years of living with coronavirus regulations, these final restrictions will expire when the requirement to wear a face covering in health and care settings ends.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said the Welsh Government will continue to recommend people take simple steps to protect their health.

He also said there would continue to be restrictions on visits to healthcare settings as clinical managers had to assess the risk in every situation and protect their patients.

On Friday, Mr Drakeford described the ending of all restrictions as a “milestone” and that there would be no more three-week reviews and no more Covid press conferences.

He said: “We have reached another milestone moment in our response to the pandemic in Wales. Unfortunately, the end of the coronavirus regulations doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. But it does mean we can take another big step towards living safely with the virus.”

He said Wales remained ready to scale up testing and vaccination arrangements once again if the public health situation changes. He said in the past week, the four UK chief medical officers have warned about the risk from new Omicron variants but that at the moment there remained very few cases of these variants in Wales.

He said cases of Covid had been declining in all four nations of the UK.

“The latest results suggest one in every 55 people had Covid-19 in Wales”, he said. “Cases are very slightly higher here than in England and Northern Ireland but lower than in Scotland.”

The Welsh Government has set out the following steps that they are advising people to follow to keep themselves and families safe (these are not legal requirements):

Get vaccinated; practise good hand hygiene;

test and self-isolate when you have symptoms; meet others outdoors; and when indoors, increase ventilation and let fresh air in.

Mr Drakeford added: “I want to thank everyone for all you have done to protect yourselves and your loved ones.”