THERE are "early signs" that the firebreak lockdown was a success, according to Wales' chief medical officer.

Dr Frank Atherton said there was always going to be a lag in seeing the impact of the two week firebreak period, but there were "early signs of stability".

The country comes out of its "short, sharp" firebreak today, with new national rules coming in to force in its place.

And Dr Atherton said he was encouraged.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "We are coming out of the firebreak arrangements today.

"We always recognised that there would be a lag in terms of the indicators we look at as to how successful we have been.

"But we are seeing some early signs of stability and we are seeing that in mobility data, so we recognise that the people of Wales have been travelling significantly less during the firebreak, and we are starting to see that in some of the testing rates."

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However, the chief medical officer warned that, despite the end of the firebreak, people's behaviour still needed to change.

He added: "As we come out of this firebreak we can't simply go back to the behaviour we had before.

"We still need to work differently."

When asked if people could be stopped travelling between England and Wales, Dr Atherton said that with England under national lockdown there was no reason to cross the border.

He added: “At the moment England is moving into its lockdown, so there’s no reason for people to travel from Wales into England.

“As England comes out of its lockdown we will absolutely have to reconsider how people travel.”