THE Welsh Government has revealed details of how Wales could ease out of the coronavirus lockdown.
Mark Drakeford, the first minister, has said some restrictions could be relaxed in less than a fortnight, at the end of the current lockdown period – but only if hospital admissions fall consistently.
However, he also moved to introduce stricter rules from today, which include a ban on second home visits, a ban on loitering, and calls for people to exercise “as close as possible”.
Cyclists are being told they should travel no farther than a “reasonable walking distance from home”.
Drakeford described the plans to end lockdown as a “traffic light in reverse”.
When Wales enters the “red zone” – potentially within a fortnight – there will be only “modest” and “very cautious” differences from where it is just now.
“We will then track those to make sure that they are working in the right way.
“And if they are, we would move into the amber zone, and in the amber zone, we would add other things into the repertoire of things that people would now be able to do.
“And again, if you’re in the amber zone, you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to put public health first, you could track the impact of those measures.
“And if we succeeded, we would end up in the green zone and in the green zone, then life begins to look a little bit like it did before the crisis began and I’m talking about it in that way to give people in Wales a sense of the journey that we may be on, how we could embark upon it, and how it might impact on their lives.”
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Drakeford said he was prepared to “do things differently” to the other nations if it was right for Wales, though his preference was a for a common set of measures across the UK.
He added there is a “long road still ahead of us towards recovery – a vaccine and effective treatment is needed.”
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