Originally Posted by
Michael Morris
Mark Drakeford's speech announcing the new coronavirus rules in full
Prynhawn da
When I spoke to you on Friday, I said I would report back with the outcome of the discussions we held over the weekend about the new set of national measures, which will be put in place when the firebreak comes to an end next Monday.
Ministers have been meeting throughout the weekend to consider the final details of these measures.
Our plans – and our discussions – have had to adapt to the unexpected announcement by the Prime Minister that England will start a month-long lockdown on Thursday.
I want to be absolutely clear our firebreak will end as planned – and as promised – next Monday.
But now we have had to consider the impact the English lockdown will have on the next steps we take in Wales.
We need to do this because we share a long and porous border with England.
Every day – on a non-lockdown day – almost 150,000 people criss-cross this border to work, visit family, shop, do business and travel
And every day a huge volume of goods and services flow through Wales to England and vice versa.
The English lockdown will have an impact on people who live in Wales but work in England; on companies operating in both Wales and England and on businesses trading along the border.
We are coming out of our firebreak just as England starts its month-long lockdown.
It’s really important that as we open up, Wales doesn’t become an escape for people seeking to circumvent the new tighter restrictions imposed by the Prime Minister.
We want to keep Wales safe and we want to keep the UK safe.
When the firebreak ends next Monday, there will be a new set of national measures, which will replace the previous local restrictions.
But more important than any rules, regulations or guidance, which we put in place will be the way each one of us responds to the virus.
We can introduce new laws but these will only be successful if we all of us do everything we can to reduce our exposure to the virus by keeping the contacts we have with other people to a minimum – at home; in work and when we go out.
We need to do the minimum – not the maximum, which the rules allow.
Our real strength lies in the choices we make and the actions we take together.
When we came out of lockdown in the spring, we took a cautious approach, relaxing restrictions gradually to make sure we did not lose all the gains we had worked so hard for.
We will once again take that approach – for the first two weeks after the firebreak ends, the national measures will be designed to maximise the impact of the work we have all been doing to control the spread of the virus.
We will review the situation in a fortnight’s time to see whether we can make further changes.
I will turn now to what this means.
During the firebreak, it has only been possible to see the people you live with in your own home. Now we can do more.
We all want our homes to be welcoming places but we also want them to be safe places.
One of the most common misconceptions about this virus is that we catch it from people we don’t know. But we are more likely to catch it from – and pass it on to – the people we are in closest contact with every day.
These are our family, our loved ones and the people we live with.
From next Monday, two households will be able to join together to form a bubble.
To help keep everyone as safe as possible at home, only people from your own household or your extended household can meet at home.
The rules around meeting people are perhaps the most difficult we have to consider. This is why we ask people to think about what they should do rather than what they can do.
We know that changing the rules to allow two households to join together and meet at home will not reflect the family dynamics of many people in Wales and it will not enable friends and young people to meet.
Beyond November 9, there will be new arrangements to meet indoors in other settings, such as pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants.
But because all these places will be closed in England, we are having to think further about how the hospitality sector in Wales can operate in these new circumstances. That consideration will continue this afternoon.
In relation to organised activity, up to 15 people can take part in an indoors activity and up to 30 in outdoors activity, providing all social distancing, hand hygiene and other covid safety measures are followed.
Schools will reopen as normal from next Monday.
Working from home will become even more important.
All business premises, which have been shut since October 23, will be able to reopen on November 9.
Local authority services will resume, reflecting local circumstances.
And places of worship will be able to reopen.
There will be no travel restrictions inside Wales but during the month-long lockdown in England, travel will not be permitted outside Wales without a reasonable excuse.
We are continuing to see large numbers of people falling ill with coronavirus in Wales and very sadly, too many families are losing loved ones to this awful virus.
We have a week left of this firebreak.
A week to make a real difference to the course of this virus; to prevent our NHS from being overwhelmed and to save lives.
I want to thank you for everything you have done so far.
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