STAY-AT-HOME restrictions in Wales could be eased in three weeks, Mark Drakeford has said.

The first minister announced today that lockdown in Wales would be extended for three more weeks.

However, Mr Drakeford also spoke of the chance that restrictions could be eased at the next review.

He told BBC Radio Wales: “I hope that this will be the last three weeks of the strict, straight, stay-at-home requirement.

“So if in three weeks time the numbers are still falling, the positivity rate is falling, the R number is below one, hospital pressures continue to reduce, then I hope we’ll be able to move beyond stay at home.

“I think it’s just at the moment too uncertain for me to be able to say whether that will be to a stay local arrangement of the sort we had last year, or whether we will be able to go beyond that.

“Of course our aim is to restore freedoms to people as fast as we’re able to do so but always provided it is safe to do so.

“As well as the good things – the vaccination programme, the falling numbers – we’ve also got difficulties as well, we’ve got new variants cropping up, we don’t know the impact that they will have on the circulation of the virus.

“The minute we begin to lift the lockdown, we know the virus will start to circulate again. It’s whether we can do that in a way that keeps it under control and creates more capacity for freedoms to be restored, freedoms for families to meet, freedom to begin the first steps of reopening the tourism sector.

“It’ll all have to be done step-by-step, carefully, and in a way that allows us always to review the evidence from any steps we take to make sure we’re not trying to do too many things too quickly.”

The news comes as a new study revealed that strict stay-at-home measures may not be required to prevent further peaks in the virus if a robust vaccination programme is put in place along with social distancing rules.

READ MORE:

Researchers from the University of Southampton used mobile phone geolocation data combined with coronavirus case data from China to model the potential impact of vaccination and physical distancing on virus transmission.

The study, carried out in collaboration with The Chinese University in Hong Kong, found that cities with medium and high density populations will need both vaccination and distancing to prevent future intense waves of Covid-19, until herd immunity is reached.

However, the report published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, suggests cities with low populations and effective vaccination could fully interrupt transmission without the need for physical distancing.

In all cities, full “stay-at-home” lockdowns would no longer be necessary, the researchers said.

And the results, which do not take into account hand-washing or face masks, also suggest strong physical distancing interventions implemented for short periods of time may be more effective than mild, longer term ones.

Dr Shengjie Lai, of the University of Southampton, said: “Our research provides a framework and set of outputs that can be used by policy-makers and public health authorities to identify appropriate levels of intervention to keep Covid-19 outbreaks in check over time.

“Although our study was based on data from China, our methods and findings are applicable to cities worldwide with similar levels of population density and social contact patterns.”