THE new rules on restricting alcohol sales in Wales will hark back to the old policy of "drinking-up time" in pubs, the first minister has said.

From tomorrow (Thursday), all pubs and other licensed venues will have to stop serving alcohol from 10pm as part of the latest public health measures to tackle the resurgent coronavirus outbreak.

The same 10pm limit will be in force in supermarkets and other shops.

Mark Drakeford said the new strategy was "very straightforward" and did not mean venues would have to close at 10pm – rather, they could allow customers some time to finish their drinks before shutting for the night.

"For many decades in the lives of some of us, we were very used to pubs closing at a certain time," Mr Drakeford said at today's Welsh Government press conference.

"You could buy a drink up to that time, and there was a short period afterwards where people were able to finish their pork scratchings before they went on their way home.

"So it is not an instruction that people must be out on the pavement at 10pm – it's no further alcohol. People who are there will be finishing up, and when they've had a sensible interval to do that, then they will be on their way home."

Pubs and other licensed venues will also have to operate a table service-only policy from tomorrow.

The new rules on alcohol sales come as the authorities in Wales – and across the rest of the UK – respond to rising cases of Covid-19.

Mr Drakeford said cases were on a "clear upward curve" and "coronavirus has returned to Wales" after a general pattern of decline over the summer months.

A "minority" of people in Wales "took the wrong message" from the decision to relax the national lockdown measures in the summer, he added, and wrongly acted as if the threat of the virus had "disappeared".

On the new alcohol restrictions, Mr Drakeford said: "I hope people in Wales, as I think the majority of people do, continue to act sensibly [and] won't think of 10pm as a race to consume as much alcohol as you can in the last few minutes.

"The way in which the industry has acted over the last few months, in its careful approach and management of those controlled settings, will be an asset to us."

Anyone tempted to continue drinking with others at home after 10pm would be "in direct breach of the regulations" if they ignored the "very simple" rule on a maximum of six people allowed to meet indoors in Wales.

The rule is even more strict in areas where there are local lockdown measures in force.

Currently, people living in those areas cannot meet indoors with people who are not in their households.

Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, and Newport are all currently subject to local lockdown rules.