Coronavirus LIVE: First minister confirms plans to change lockdown restrictions

Government talks

He said there is a meeting next week with finance ministers, where they hope to get further details on capital to revenue issues and other issues.

He has had no reply on temporary furlough measures, to deal with incentive of people to go to work when they are ill because they don’t want to go onto sick pay.

He said they are reaching the end of discussions with Treasury in relation to £500 to care staff, and he said it looks like Treasury intends to take money away from care staff which he said is “deeply regrettable and avoidable”.

Local lockdown

He said he has not spoken with Prime Minister since May 28, and there has been no offer declined.

On local lockdown, he said powers were less clear in England, but they said the power is much clearer in Wales.

Lockdown easing

Mr Drakeford is asked if he was given notice of lockdown easing announced by UK Government today.

He said they were given some details in advance of press conference earlier today.

He is asked about advice to workers in Wales to return to the office, and he said people should work from home if they can do so.

He said he does not want people to return to offices as they had before coronavirus. He said they have learnt how possible it is how effectively people can work from home without people having to travel to the office every day at peak times.

He said they have managed well by working differently, which he thinks is a positive lesson, and he will not undermine our ability to learn those lessons in Wales.

Lockdown advice

He is asked about when the Welsh Government was advised to lockdown.

He said his memory was that it was on March 23, when advice was put to COBRA meeting.

Advice the previous week showed the evolving pattern, but he recalls that it was March 23 that a full lockdown was advised.

He said he thinks you have to take a “pretty sunny view” of circumstances to think it will be over by Christmas, and said things could even be worse in winter.

Second wave planning

He is asked about what Welsh Government and NHS is doing over the coming months to deal with a potential second wave.

He said the worst case is “unmitigated”, if nothing was done to prevent outcomes, and he said they will get advice to prepare for reasonable worst case scenario from report.

They will be carrying out field hospital preparations, working with care home sector, flu immunisation programme.

He said that is a small section of a longer list of things they have identified to avoid worst case.

Stadiums

He is asked about reopening stadiums and whether there have been any considerations of this.

He said sport is being played in stadiums but without spectators. He said they haven’t had discussions about bringing large crowds together, and it wouldn’t be sensible to do that at this stage.

He said they understand UK Government will pilot bringing back crowds, and he said they will learn with them about results of those pilots.

If it demonstrates it is safe, they will consider it in Wales, but they want to learn from the pilots first, he said.

Mr Drakeford said it is not the stadium that is the issue, it is outside the stadium that can be the issue.

Britishvolt plans

He is asked about proposals by Britishvolt to build a factory in Wales , and how certain he is about the plans coming to fruition.

He said they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and are in exclusive talks with Wales about bringing the factory here, but it is “not in the bag until it is in the bag”.

Further discussions will be held, with the UK Government needing to provide funding.

He said they will continue to work “positively” with the company.

Arts sector

He is asked about the arts industry, and what the plan is for them.

He said the £59million consequential for the arts sector has come to Wales, conversations with arts sector are drawing to a conclusion, with further meetings today.

Final details will be confirmed at the start of next week, and detailed announcement on first tranche of funding will be made soon.

Darkest days

He said in the “darkest days of April”, there were 219 new positive cases every day, but yesterday there were just 18 new positive cases with over 4,000 cases.

He said there were 164 people with coronavirus in intensive care in April, that is now down to 10.

43 people were dying a day, in the last week we have had days where there have been no new reported deaths.

When things were toughest, they said they had real concerns about running out of PPE, and the fact this did not happen was because of efforts of Welsh businesses and people in NHS and Welsh Government.

They have supplied more than 250,000,000 items of PPE since March.

Testing capacity is increased to 15,000 tests a day, with more available from home testing kits.

More than 300,000 tests have been carried out in Wales, with around 17,000 tests a day.

Less than half of 1% of cases are now positive, he said.

Everything demonstrates impact pandemic has had on “every corner of life in Wales”, he said.

While coronavirus is in retreat, the crisis is not over and coronavirus remains in Wales, he said.

Without a vaccine, it will be with us for some time to come, he said.

They will spend the summer planning for the rest of the year, working on the Economic Resilience Fund, providing support for business.

They will refining plans for reopening schools, working with the NHS for winter plans including ensuring field hospitals are prepared. They will continue to plan flu vaccination campaign, and work with care homes to ensure they are prepared.

He said they may face more difficult days to come, but “together, provided we do all the things we have done together, we will still be able to go on keeping Wales safe”.

A look back on the crisis

He said back in March, nobody had died from coronavirus in Wales, and there were less than 100,000 cases in the world.

They then had to introduce UK-wide lockdown, where they asked everyone to stay home.

Now, it is difficult to remember how they faced so many real fears as the virus changed the way they lived lives, he said.

They were worried supermarkets would run out of food, NHS would be overwhelmed and they would run out of places to bury the dead, most vulnerable would have no access to basic supplies and economy would be overwhelmed.

He said a great many sad things have happened, with livelihoods and business lost, families unable to see loved ones and more than 2,400 people having died.

For those families, “this crisis is certainly not over” he said.

Because of the efforts made, the worst of the fears they head have been averted, he said.

Today he wants to say thank you to those in public services and have done “so much to keep us all safe over these very difficult months”

Move to weekly updates

Mr Drakeford begins by saying this will be the last daily press conference on coronavirus.

They will continue to work through the summer, but they will be moving to a weekly press conference on a Tuesday, he said.

If the virus changes over the summer, they will hold conferences more regularly again.

They will have additional briefing in week when three-weekly cycle comes to and end.

He said this is a moment to look back over the experience.

Press conference underway

The press conference is now getting underway.

Mr Drakeford will announce playgrounds, funfairs and community centres in Wales will reopen on Monday.

Outdoor gyms will also be able to operate as part of the latest measures to lift Wales’ coronavirus restrictions.

Press conference to take place

The coronavirus lockdown restrictions are set to be eased further from Monday.

First minister Mark Drakeford is holding a press conference at 12.30pm today where he will outline what restrictions will be lifted.

It is set to include playgrounds, community centres and outdoor gyms being allowed to open up again.

We’ll bring you all the latest from the briefing at 12.30pm.