THOUGHTS are beginning to turn to what a post-lockdown Wales - and the rest of the United Kingdom - will look like, and when.

Levels of optimism may vary, but there is one watchword common to the approach being adopted by policymakers.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said today that his plan to bring England out of lockdown will be "cautious but irreversible".

The second part of that phrase is the sort of absolute in which the PM regularly indulges, an approach that has not always served him well during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wales' health minister Vaughan Gething uttered the word 'cautious' too today, when asked about how the Welsh Government will tackle the easing of lockdown.

But he was not prepared to go as far as Mr Johnson in stating there would be no rowing back on the easing of lockdown restrictions.

The Welsh Government will be “clear and cautious” about about easing lockdown, he said, but he refused to give a "cast iron guarantee" that lockdown measures would not be reimposed.

"I think the danger is, we try to set up absolutes and talk of whether this is irreversible," he said.

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"[But] the changes in the way this virus continues, and the knowledge we have of the virus, will decide our response.

"We don't want to see a return to having to introduce more restrictions, but I don't want to say we can guarantee not having to do that.

"If there is another variant or strain, then we have a responsibility to act."

There is much still to be done in terms of observing the ongoing restrictions, making adjustments when possible, and continuing to vaccinate the population, and Mr Gething stressed: "We've got to this place because of all the things we have done."

"If we make cautious steps outwards, then it will still very much feel like a form of lockdown for most people, because we're not going to be returning straight away to what we thought of as our normal lives just over a year ago," he said.

He added that if, after restrictions had been eased or removed, there is a "significant upswing" in coronavirus cases, or a threat from another emerging variant, the Welsh Government "would have a responsibility to act."

Mr Gething said managing the pandemic continues to be about balancing the risks, and stressed that coronavirus remains a "significant public health risk" and "an unfinished pandemic" with all the harm to the economy and people's physical and mental health and wellbeing that entails.

"That is the balance we have to deal with. When I came into public life it was never with the intention to intrude in people's lives," he said, adding that such measures have been taken "by necessity".

Mr Gething said the Welsh Government is looking at “small things” to ease out of lockdown at this week's three-weekly review, but refused to speculate on what they might be.

Most of the "headroom" created by the slowing of coronavirus case rates in Wales will be taken up by the return of the youngest pupils to classrooms from next Monday.

“We are looking to see if there are other small things we can do," he said, but added that the Cabinet has not finalised its approach, and speculation "would be unhelpful".