Wales eases lockdown cautiously with ‘stay local’ slogan

Wales will ease its lockdown regulations from Monday with plans unveiled to allow family and friends to meet outside.

The Welsh government has taken a slower approach than England to lifting the strict stay-at-home coronavirus guidelines, as has Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland.

Under new “stay local” guidelines, which replace the “stay at home” message, two households in the same area will be able to meet outdoors, but they will need to follow social distancing and strict hand hygiene practices to control the spread of the virus. Travel will be allowed if it is to work, to seek care or for shopping for essentials if they are not available locally.

The first minister, Mark Drakeford, said he believed the Welsh public were “comfortable with the careful and cautious approach” of his government.

Anticipating an increase in trips to the Welsh coast, he limited travel to a five-mile radius around a home. He added that those who lived in coastal communities were “absolutely entitled” to use the beach, but people were not allowed to travel more than five miles to get to a beach.

Drakeford said his approach had been dictated by the R number - which refers to the average number of people that one infected person can expect to spread the virus on to. He said Wales had “limited headroom” for relaxing restrictions as the R infection rate in the country remained at 0.8 and was falling more slowly than expected.

He said: “The R rate across Wales is no better today than it was three weeks ago, which is why we have only limited headroom to make any difference.

“And that is why we decided to focus on this one measure to allow households to see one another.”

Drakeford later said there was no cap on the number of people from one household that could meet people from another household, but warned that the new guidelines were not an “invitation” to meet up.

He said: “The safest thing remains to see as few people as you can and to stay as locally as you can.

“Running to people’s houses, sitting in gardens close together, having a beer and it all breaking down - that’s definitely not what we are proposing in Wales.”

Related: Covid-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England – Sage adviser

Drakeford was criticised for the five-mile restriction on travel, with the rule being described as “arbitrary” by the former leader of the Welsh Conservative group, Andrew Davies.

Davies called on the first minister to reconsider, claiming it would unfairly affect those living in rural communities.

“Not everyone in Wales lives in a town or city close to family and friends, and this will unfairly impact those in our rural communities. I therefore politely ask the first minister to change this regulation,” he said.

However Drakeford said the restriction was necessary to prevent the virus spreading from one area to another.

“What I’m asking people to do is to use that judgment seriously and soberly. The further you travel, the greater the risk that is posed to yourself and others of coronavirus ending up in parts of Wales where we’ve succeeded in keeping it to a minimum. Nobody, I think, wants to do that,” he said.

On Thursday, Public Health Wales announced a further 14 people had died after testing positive for Covid-19, bringing its total confirmed deaths to 1,307, though the true number is said to be more than 2,000.

Another 72 cases of the virus were also reported, bringing the total of confirmed cases in Wales so far to 13,725.