Extra restrictions for hospitality ‘inevitable’ after Christmas says Mark Drakeford
Some extra restrictions on hospitality are “inevitable” after Christmas, the First Minister has said.
Mark Drakeford told Politics Wales they would be looking at the same sorts of measures that were in existence during previous waves of the pandemic.
He also said that they would be looking at sports matches to see whether they would need to be played with smaller crowds or behind closed doors.
“We will be working this week on the rules about how hospitality will reopen after Christmas,” he said.
“I think it’s inevitable that when hospitality reopens we will need to build some extra defences into the way they operate otherwise people won’t turn up there. That’s the thing to remember – the reason we’re doing this is for business reasons as well as health reasons.
“It’s normally as it has been for other settings looking back to the sorts of measures we had earlier in the pandemic. So people will remember, not so long ago, that if you went to a restaurant your details were collected so they could be used for track and trace. That you ordered from where you say, that you wore a mask when you moved around, not when you’re eating and drinking. If you were moving around the restaurant, you wore a mask when you were moving around.”
He was also asked by presenter James Williams about bringing back the rule of six.
“Well, I’m not saying that isn’t on the list of things that we will consider,” he said. “But there are measures you can take before you get to that. And we will obviously look at the less intrusive measures first.”
On sporting events, he said that the “full range of possibilities are there”. He added that a “lot of safeguards are built into those venues and they are out of doors.”
“We’re getting fresh advice from our public health experts as to whether or not it is still safe to go ahead with those matches,” he said.
“If it’s not safe to go ahead as they are now, as you say, could it be safe to go ahead with a reduced number of people? Could you go ahead behind closed doors? Is it not safe to go ahead at all?
“All of those possibilities will be there. And the Cabinet will meet tomorrow to thrash our way through the advice we’ve got and the choices that are to be made.”
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Cymru, you are not alone!