Both the UK Prime Minister and the First Minister made televised addresses yesterday evening to announce a number of new measures at a national level designed to slow the advance of the second wave of Covid-19.
While many of the measures announced for England were already in place in Wales, the First Minister said:
- £500 will be provided for people on low incomes who need to self-isolate – in line with England – and employers will be required, through regulations, to properly support employees who are quarantining themselves.
- People should work from home if they’re able to do so.
- The public should “think carefully about making journeys”.
- Hospitality businesses will only be allowed to provide table service.
- Pubs, cafes, restaurants that sell alcohol and clubs will need to stop selling alcohol at 10 pm; supermarkets and off-licences will need to stop selling alcohol at 10 pm as well.
These national measures are on top of more stringent measures introduced as part of local lockdown restrictions in (at the time of posting) six local authorities in Wales, with growing concerns about increasing infection rates in several more counties.
The Conservatives called for lockdown restrictions to be more carefully targeted using council-ward level data to introduce local lockdowns rather than whole council areas.
Plaid Cymru called for alcohol sales to stop at 6 pm in areas placed into a local lockdown.
