No return to local lockdowns after two-week firebreak, First Minister confirms
First Minister Mark Drakeford has confirmed that there will not be a return to the local lockdown restrictions across the country after the 'firebreak' lockdown across Wales ends on November 9.
Mark Drakeford admitted the series of local lockdowns he previously imposed across the country during the autumn "didn't work well enough" to curb the spread of the virus.
The new rules would also be "easier for everybody to understand" after confusion over the Welsh Government's ban on the sale of non-essential items in supermarkets, he said.
The end of the 'firebreak' will mean that shops, bars, restaurants and gyms will be able to reopen and that churches and places of worship will be able to resume services.
It will also mean that all pupils will be able to return to school following the 17-day lockdown period.
Pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes, holiday accommodation, shopping centres and arcades, markets, places of worship, crematoriums and community centres have been required to close during the 'firebreak' with some exceptions.
He told the Welsh Government's Covid-19 briefing in Cardiff: "We will put in place a simpler set of national rules that are easier for everybody to understand, to help keep us safe and keep the virus under control.
"We've been working hard to create this new set of measures that we can all live with this winter.
"If the new measures are to work, we all have to act in ways that live up to the public health emergency we are facing together.
"Please do not treat the new rules as though they were a game in which the challenge is always to stretch them to the limit."
He added that ministers are finalising the national set of measures and he will provide the "full details" on Monday.
Watch the press conference in full with First Minister Mark Drakeford
Asked why Wales would not return to the local lockdown system, Mr Drakeford said: "It's not that they didn't work. It's that they didn't work well enough to withstand the onslaught that we have seen from the virus over the last six weeks.
"They undoubtedly have helped, and all the efforts that people have made in those areas have kept the virus at a lower level in Wales than would otherwise have been the case."
Supermarkets, newsagents, post offices, laundrettes and dry cleaners can currently remain open, as can hardware stores, bicycle shops, petrol stations, garages, taxi and vehicle hire businesses.
Pharmacies, chemists, dentists, opticians, chiropractors, osteopaths, mental health services, vets, pet shops, livestock markets and funeral directors are also currently permitted to stay open during this time.