First Minister set to announce outcome of lockdown review at 12:30 today

Wales is currently under lockdown conditions to help tackle the spread of the coronavirus, with an update due later today on the status of the regulations.

There is an automatic review of the coronavirus regulations built into the emergency law, with previous changes seeing rules changed in Wales on funerals as well as making the 2m rule law in the workplace.

Unlike a previous announcement that saw embargo breaks there has been no official information on what, if any, changes will made to the lockdown.

A short statement was released last night following the second cabinet meeting of the day, it read: “The Welsh Cabinet reconvened this evening to discuss the lockdown restrictions and review the regulations.

“The First Minister will hold a press conference at 12.30pm tomorrow on what this means for Wales.”

The First Minister briefing will be at the now usual 12:30pm slot and is viewable on BBC One Wales, S4C and online via the @WelshGovernment twitter account.

The @WelshGovernment feed is often the only one that shows the entire briefing including the full Q&A session after the statement given by the Minister.

This morning the Welsh Government account has published a video ‘explainer’ by Health Minister Vaughan Gething giving details on on the “R number” and why it matters, and points to a ‘cautious, phased approach to lifting any restrictions’.

Mr Gething says: “All viruses have a rate of infection scientists call this the R number. R is the average number of people one infected person passes the virus onto. It tells us how contagious a virus is.

“We’re using the R number to tell us the number of people who could get infected for every one person who becomes ill with coronavirus.

“For example, if R is one, and 100 people are infected with coronavirus, they will infect 100 people more. These people will go on to infect even more people.

“An R number of one or more tells us that the virus is spreading quickly. But if R is less the one, those 100 people will infect fewer than 100 people with coronavirus, and so on.

“This tells us that the virus is spreading less quickly, and the actions that we’re taking together are helping to control it. Without a cure, or a vaccine for coronavirus that R number informs the decisions that we are taking to stop coronavirus from spreading to protect our NHS, and to save lives.

“When social distancing measures were brought in here in Wales the R number was between two and three. This means that the virus was spreading quickly in our communities.

“Thanks to you, to everyone staying at home, washing our hands regularly and staying two meters away from others that R rate is now falling. Even when the R number is below one, it doesn’t mean that we can just return to normal.

“Everything that we change, every adjustment that we make to the restrictions in place will have an impact on the R number.

“That is why we will take a cautious, phased approach to lifting any restrictions.”

What’s an ‘R number’ and why does it matter?

You’re probably hearing a lot of talk about the R number and the spread of coronavirus.

Health Minister @vaughangething explains what it is and why we’re keeping a close eye on it 👇 pic.twitter.com/Y8JQAf3HVj

— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) May 8, 2020