THERE are no plans for local restrictions to be introduced in Gwent despite a dramatic rise in cases in the region, first minister Mark Drakeford has confirmed.

The region is currently the worst affected area in Wales, four of the five local authorities - Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Newport and Caerphilly - recording among the five highest cases per 100,000 population over the last seven days across the whole of Wales.

But speaking at a press conference in Cardiff on Friday, Mr Drakeford said Wales would continue to follow a set of national restrictions.

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"Just as North Wales held on to the advantages of the firebreak for longer, they eroded first of all in Gwent," he said.

"A national effort, with a single set of rules that we can easily communicate and are therefore more likely to be followed, remains - we think - the most effective way of providing a response to coronavirus in all parts of Wales.

"We certainly need it to work in the Gwent area, and I think doing it in this national way is to the advantage to all parts of Wales, whether its places where the virus has began to rise and needs to be turned back, or where we are trying to hang on to the gains that we made over that firebreak period."