THE Welsh Government have published new advice to extremely vulnerable people who were previously shielding in Wales.

As of today, the Welsh Government recommend that those people no longer attend work or school outside of home.

Letters will be sent out to those people in the shielding catergory by the chief medical officer for Wales, and they can be used as evidence for the purpose of claiming statutory sick pay.

The advice is particularly relevant for those vulnerable people whose work requires them to be in regular or sustained contact with other people, or where individuals share a poorly ventilated workspace for long periods.

Vaughan Gething, minister for health and social services, said; "This decision has been taken based on a number of factors, but has been influenced most recently by the significant growth in rates of infections, possibly due to the new variant of the coronavirus.

"We have also taken account of the pressures we see on our health service with increasing hospitalisations.

"This advice will be reviewed on a three weekly basis aligned to the Welsh Government reviews of alert levels across Wales.

"Individuals in this group are already subject to the regulations in place at level 4 and therefore must stay at home as much as possible.

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"However I would wish to emphasise that the group can still go outside to exercise and also to attend medical appointments.

"We must remain conscious of the harms associated with isolation for long periods and therefore those in this group can remain part of a support bubble, as long as they take care."

Mr Gething said that the safest option for people within this group was not to be part of a Christmas bubble.

However, if they choose to do so, advice on how to stay safe is available here.

The minister added: "I am asking employers to take note of the change to advice and support their employees to follow it."

Guidance for those who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable will be updated as soon as possible.