FM: 'Wales to drop local lockdown approach to coronavirus'

The local restrictions were first introduced in Caerphilly on September 8.

Since then many parts of Wales, including Newport, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen, were also placed in local lockdown.

However, at the conclusion of the two week firebreak period on November 9, that approach will be dropped.

In its place, first minster Mark Drakeford said today, will be a "set of national rules that will apply in all parts of Wales."

Mr Drakeford said: "We have used this time to review the approach we have been taking earlier in the autumn, and while that approach helped, it did come with some complexity - different rules in different parts of Wales, introduced at different times.

"For the sake of clarity and simplicity, our decision is that at the end of the firebreak lockdown we will have a set of national rules that will apply in all parts of Wales.

READ MORE:

• Coronavirus: latest news as Mark Drakeford is set to speak to the country today
• Cannabis factory with more than 2,000 plants discovered after fire in empty pub
• Covid in Spanish farm workers responsible for 80% of Welsh cases, says study

"I hope that that will help people be clearer about what they are being asked to do, because we have had evidence of people wanting to do the right thing but not always being certain that is.

"This is because the rules have been more difficulty to follow than we would have liked."

While the local lockdown restrictions are being dropped, the first minster was keen to emphasise that they did have an impact on slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

He was also keen to thank people who had been living under those restrictions for their efforts.

Mr Drakeford added: "It is not that they did not work, it is that they did not work well enough to withstand the onslaught that we have seen from this virus over the last six weeks.

"They undoubtedly have helped and all the efforts that people have made in those areas have kept the virus at a lower level that would otherwise have been the case.

"Those efforts have absolutely been worthwhile.

"But they have met a virus that has risen at a pace and on a scale that means local measures are no longer sufficient to be able to deal with it."