TOUGH lockdown measures that will begin to be introduced in Wales from Christmas Eve, will initially last until mid-January.

First Minster Mark Drakeford announced yesterday that Wales is heading for another lockdown after Christmas, moving into the new - and highest - alert level four, in response to a sustained increase in coronavirus cases.

The situation will be reviewed every three weeks, meaning it will be January 18 at the earliest before alert level four might be changed.

All non-essential retail, including close contact services and fitness and leisure centres, will close at the end of trading on Christmas Eve.

All hospitality businesses will close from 6pm on Christmas Day.

And from Bank Holiday Monday December 28, at the end of the five-day Christmas period, tighter restrictions for household mixing, travel, staying at home and holiday accommodation will come in to force.

The latter date is the one when the alert level four formally comes into operation.

Ministers have made the point that a set of national measures is preferred in Wales, to having different regions coming out of lockdown at different times.

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"We will review the regulations after three weeks," said Mr Drakeford yesterday.

"If some parts of Wales have established themselves as being in a different position in a reliable and sustainable way, then that is the moment we will see whether it would be sensible to introduce some regional differentiations.

"But we won't know that until that time, and those changes would need to be exactly that - sustained and reliable."

The Welsh Government's Coronavirus Control Plan, published earlier this week, lays out what measures the Welsh Government will be looking at when the time comes to review the lockdown.

The most quantifiable measure is to look at the rolling seven-day Wales-wide case rate per 100,000 population. For the seven days up to December 11 - the most recent figure from Public Health Wales not affected by an under-reporting issue linked to data system maintenance and upgrades - this figure stands at 377.8.

For Wales to move into tier three, and thus allow businesses to reopen, the rolling seven-day case rate must be between 150 and 300 per 100,000 population.

The confirmed case rates for over 60s must not be suggesting rapid growth to move down into tier three, and the projection of future case incidence rates over the following two weeks should not be anticipating significant rises.

Across Wales, there will need to be a test positivity rate of between five and 10 per cent over a seven-day period. From the latest Public Health Wales figures, that currently stands at 20.5 per cent.

The forecast of the amount of the population in Wales estimated to have coronavirus has to be between 0.75 per cent and one per cent.

For all of these factors, the Welsh Government would also consider the rates of change of these figures.

Hospital capacity concerns and likely pressure from increased cases four-five weeks in the future will also be a factor, and concerns from local health professionals will also be considered.