PEOPLE in Wales will be allowed to exercise outdoors with someone from another household, Mark Drakeford has confirmed.

The first minister told BBC Radio Wales this morning that the slight relaxation of the exercise rule was one of two "very minor adjustments" to the nationwide lockdown.

This afternoon, Mr Drakeford is expected to announce the lockdown measures will remain in force for another three weeks, when they will again be reviewed by ministers.

But the new rule means people will no longer be confined to exercising outdoors with members of their own household.

"We're going to ease that very slightly by allowing you to meet one other person from one other household – provided they are living locally to you – so that you will be able to exercise alongside that other person," Mr Drakeford told the BBC.

"You can meet a different person on different occasions. You've all got to leave from your own front door and return to your own front door for exercise. We're still talking about people living very locally [to each other]."

The first minister said this was "a very minor easement but it will be important to some people".

He said the Welsh Government had been contacted by women who felt "nervous about going out by themselves for exercise" in the dark winter months.

Mr Drakeford will also announce this afternoon that people can re-form 'bubbles' with one other household.

Until now, anyone in a so-called 'bubble' has not been allowed to change their minds about who they wish to form the bubble with.

"We know that weeks into this, some people will have moved [and] some people's relationships will have changed,"Mr Drakeford told the BBC. "We're going to allow people to dissolve the bubble they're in at the moment and re-form them with another household, provided there's a 10-day gap between the two."

The news follows Mr Drakeford's earlier comments today that Wales would look to reopen classrooms for the youngest primary school children in February if coronavirus infection rates continued to fall.

On the decision to renew the lockdown measures today, he said: "There are grounds for optimism in Wales because the rates of infection here continue to fall, but the impact on our hospitals is still very significant.

"We can't afford to take our foot off the pedal at this point."

But things could change in three weeks, when the next review of the rules is scheduled to take place.

"Provided things continue to improve, we will then be in a position to begin lifting some of the lockdown restrictions," he said.