RELATIVES will soon be able to pay a visit to loved ones inside care homes in Wales, as long as strict controls are in place.

First Minister Mark Drakeford is expected to confirm later today that such visits will be allowed from Saturday August 29, a week tomorrow, subject to a aforementioned controls, and to conditions regarding coronavirus remaining favourable.

Such visits have been off limits since March in Wales, though some care homes - including a number in Newport and other parts of Gwent - have managed to arrange socially distanced face-to-face visits outside in their grounds, under awnings and subject to the weather.

Mr Drakeford is also expected to confirm a further easing of lockdown restrictions in Wales that has already been proposed.

He is set to confirm that from tomorrow, Saturday August 22, extended households can expand to include up to four households in an exclusive, extended arrangement.

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Weddings and funerals will also be able to include a meal for up to 30 people, in suitably socially distant settings.

However, he will also warn that despite the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in Wales, now is not the time to move away from the careful and cautious approach taken so far.

“While coronavirus remains effectively suppressed in Wales and cases continue to fall, the situation in the rest of the UK and further afield is still problematic," he said, alluding to rising numbers of cases, and to local lockdowns, in some areas of England and Scotland.

"Coronavirus has not gone away and so, as we move out of lockdown and look to the future, it is important we do this in a careful and cautious way."