FIRST minister Mark Drakeford reaffirmed his desire for a UK-wide relaxation of lockdown measures at his press conference on Monday.

The Welsh Government will be reviewing the current measures this week, but Mr Drakeford said it was important not to "throw away" people's sacrifices over the past month by lifting restrictions too soon.

He also warned the early stages of lifting the lockdown "would not look very different to lockdown itself."

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"The legislation requires us to have a formal review every 21 days, and that is what will happen at the end of this week," he said.

"I believe that a four nations approach works best for Wales.

"Across the United Kingdom, we entered lockdown on the same day and on the same basic terms.

"I believe it would be best if we could begin to lift lockdown through a set of common measures implemented to a common timetable which we then put to work for Wales.

"Whatever actions we agree upon, it is essential that we take people with us, and that Welsh citizens feel that any changes we make are safe for them and their families.

"People have made the most extraordinary sacrifices over the past weeks, and we must and will not throw these away by lifting any restrictions not underpinned by clear clinical and scientific evidence."

Mr Drakeford admitted Wales' limited testing capacity could be stretched when lockdown measures are lifted.

"We will certainly need greater testing capacity when we get to the test, trace, isolate part of the community-based response to any lifting of restrictions," he said.

"We already have, as of last week, the first draft of a plan from Public Health Wales, to be able to do that.

"We have been discussing it with our partners in local authorities and in the NHS.

"As we carefully and cautiously move in to a world beyond the current restrictions, we have the system in place to be able to test people where we need to, trace contacts of people who have symptoms, and isolate people so the virus doesn't spread further."

He also clarified his comments from over the weekend about when schools could reopen, saying there is no date set for this to happen.

"It takes three weeks from the moment you make a decision to reopen the schools for schools to be reopened," he said. "If we were to have decided today, the earliest schools could have reopened would be June."

He also said the Welsh Government will have to convince parents it is safe for children to return to schools when they reopen, rather than compelling them.

Speaking about returning to work, Mr Drakeford said he believed each employer "would be required to publish a risk assessment that shows how they have translated the general advice in to things that give their workers confidence it is a safe place to return to work."