“Stay local” under consideration for Friday’s announcement – with sectors poised for reopening if they get green light

Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said “stay local” requirements which appear likely to be introduced in Wales will vary for different parts of the country.

The Welsh Government is due to review the current stay at home restrictions which are currently in place nationally later this week.

The likelihood of a slight relaxation of the rules has been trailed recently by First Minister Mark Drakeford following a reduction in cases of the virus and hospital admission numbers.

The Health Minister has now provided further details during a press conference held at lunchtime.

When questioned on the merits of returning to the stay local instructions, Mr Gething said: “We are thinking about what stay local would mean and the First Minister will confirm that.

“But again, it’s asking people to stick with it for a period of weeks, and to be sensible about it.

“And to recognise that if like me you’re fortunate enough to live in Penarth then actually a few miles from Penarth, you can do lots of things.

“Whereas if I live in the middle of Powys or in the middle of Anglesey within a few miles I might not be able to do that.

“We do recognise that if we go to stay local, it will be slightly different depending on where you live.

“I think that is something that most of us, in applying our common sense, recognise, so any guidance around that would recognise that too.

“A few weeks of that and then we think we may be in a position to go beyond that, but the First Minister will set out the confirmed thinking and choices of the government when he speaks to you on Friday.”

We asked the health minister about possible reopening of business on Monday (15th) with a lot of local activity taking place across a range of sectors in expectation of an announcement. We highlighted that, and asked if he was comfortable that all sectors are aware of what the review entails, that they have been signalled to appropriately, and there won’t be a situation on Monday that businesses will be ready and expecting to open, but can’t.

He: “I’d say two things. The first is that we have had regular conversations with sector wide bodies to talk about what might be possible, to talk about the time that they would need to get ready to reopen as well because for some sectors it’s longer than others.

“We’ve tried to be as open as we can do about that.

“This comes to my second point, that in that openness, we can’t give absolute cast iron guarantees.

“Because if in the figures that we see today or tomorrow we see a spike in different areas and different activity that may cause us to re-consider and think about what we’re doing.

“Now I said the first minister is going to be able to give more certainty on Friday, because actually the public health position is improving week-on-week over the whole of the country.

“But if in three or four weeks time we were seeing a different position, we may need to reconsider some of the advanced signals that we hope to be able to give about the next phase coming out of lockdown.

“So yes, I think we do have regular engagement with those different sectors that we’re looking to be able to reopen, and to reopen safely. But it’s also the case that you can’t say that we’ll never have to retreat or to put the brakes on.

“But really, as I said, repeatedly it is about the choices we’re all making to want to recover more freedom but to keep it and not to have to go backwards.”