The Welsh government has unveiled its plans for adjusting the country’s coronavirus lockdown measures.

First minister Mark Drakeford said The Welsh Government has decided the stay-at-home regulations will remain in place until the next review date in three weeks’ time, which means all people must continue to work from home wherever they can, only travel when absolutely necessary, continue to observe the 2m social distancing rule, and wash our hands often.

However the First Minister announced some “small and modest adjustments” to the current restrictions will be made on Monday, after the Welsh cabinet met on Thursday to review the current restrictions, which have been in force since 23 March.

As devolved governments – with the power to shape their own public health policy – Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can legally end lockdown on their terms.

They changes include:

  • Allowing people to go outside to exercise more than once a day, but they want people to stay local. Any exercise should start and end at home and not involve going a significant distance from home;
  • Garden centres will be allowed to re-open, provided the 2m social distancing rules can be applied;
  • Changing the regulations to allow local authorities to begin planning how to safely re-open libraries and municipal recycling centres.

Mr Drakeford said: “These changes will apply to everyone but the 120,000 people in the shielding group. It is really important this group continues to follow the shielding advice.

“We would also urge people who are over 70, who have an underlying health condition or are pregnant to continue to take extra care to protect themselves.”

R Rate

The First Minister explained that the R-rate, or reproduction rate of the virus, helps the Government to measure how the virus is circulating in Wales.

The virus is now between 0.7 and 0.9, but “if we lift the measures too quickly, the R rate will increase,” he said.

A rise of just 0.1 could mean thousands of more people admitted to hospital and a large number of deaths, he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to set out a road map for the next phase of lockdown in England will be outlined on Sunday night.