FIRST Minister Mark Drakeford has announced Wales’ ‘Stay at Home’ rule could be removed after the next review of lockdown restrictions, but did not given any details on what position Wales would have to be in for this to be repealed.

Mr Drakeford said at today’s press conference that the Welsh Government was prioritising getting older pupils back into school and college for blended learning from the next review – the results of which will be announced on March 12 - but added the 'Stay at Home' message could also be reviewed.

“If we can lift the stay at home requirement in three weeks time, then we will also look to see whether we can begin to reopen some non-essential retail and close contact services - such as hairdressing,” he said.

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However, when asked what position Wales would need to be in for that to happen, Mr Drakeford said it would not be a case of reaching certain figures – such as for case rates, hospital admissions or the R number.

“The important thing is to say is that the judgement will not just be a mechanical one,” he said. “It won’t be driven simply by if a number is this, the action will be that.

“What we will do is to take a judgement in the round informed by the advice of our senior clinicians and scientific advisors.

“So we will look at all the things that we become familiar with - the number of people per 100,000, that that is continuing to decline; the positivity rates are declining; that the R number remains below 1; and that the impact of coronavirus in all hospitals is continuing to reduce - but we will then look at all of that as a package, take advice from those who are responsible for our health service and who model for us the way coronavirus is spreading in Wales and when we take all of that together the cabinet will make a judgement on what is possible in three weeks time.”

Mr Drakeford was asked if giving people hope of the lockdown lifting in three weeks time, when this could easily be pushed back further than that, was the right way to announce decisions.

“What I hear from people who contact us is that this has been a long exhausting process and people do need to have some sense at all their efforts are going to bear some fruit,” he said.

“Hope is an important part of the human condition - the hope that things can get better - then we can look forward to things improving.

“So I could say indeed, this is the worst [case scenario], it could go on like this for a long time yet. But on the whole, I think that is not the easiest way to help people to get through the experience we're all living through together.

“I want to be able to indicate where things can improve and the time scale against which that could happen while having always to be realistic with people, this is what can happen provided things continue to improve.

“If we were knocked off course by a different variant of the virus or something else that we haven't been able to foresee, things may not be as good as I've been able to lay out today.

“But we've had a very good period since Christmas.

“If we can keep that up then things can improve, and they can improve in three weeks from now.”